NOA Flags Off Campaign Against Electoral Malpractices

With less than one month to the 2019 general elections in the country the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Rivers State has flagged off campaign against vote buying, voided votes and electoral violence.
The Acting State Director of the Agency, Mr Young Ayotamuno who said this at a town hall meeting in Port Harcourt said that the move was part of the Agency’s commitment towards ensuring free and fair elections.
According to him, NOA is committed to ensuring a free fair, transparent, credible and violence free elections. “As an agency that is strategically positioned and endowed with enormous potentials in reaching out to the citizenry across the entire 774 local government areas of the country, it has remained a major driver in Nigeria guest for change and has consistently upheld its mandate of promoting a vibrant democratic culture and citizen’s participation and responsibility through political and civic education”.
Meanwhile, a former Chairman of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Barrister Karibi George had flayed some state governments in the country for refusing to demonstrate the Freedom of Information Act (FOIACT) in their respective states.
George, who said this in his presentation at the town hall meeting said that the respective governments are blacking their citizens from getting access to public information.
He however, said that since the faint as a freedom law, states are bound to obey it.
George also stressed the need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give all political parties level playing field during the elections.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion professor Nlerum .S. Okogbule urged the press to be proactive in educating citizens on their rights.
According to him, the mass media must serve to ensure that the right kind of information is disseminated.