Politics
Diri Recommends E-Voting For Future Elections
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has described as free and fair the election which produced the new leadership of the Ijaw National Congress (INC).
He said the conduct of the a free and fair election by the INC electoral committee through electronic voting, was a pointer to the fact that the Nigerian government could also do so in future polls.
Diri stated this at the weekend during the inauguration of the 8th national executive committee of the Ijaw national congress, INC at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa,capital of Bayelsa state.
He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt electronic voting to avoid conflicts during elections.
The governor also said that the adoption of e-voting would provide an opportunity for Nigerians in the Diaspora to choose their leaders through the ballot.
“I am an advocate and supporter of electronic voting system. Many Nigerians have been denied the right to vote because they are not in Nigeria and cannot participate in choosing their leaders”, he said.
“It is a challenge to Nigeria. Let the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) be challenged. If the Ijaws can do it, the Federal Government can also do it.If Ijaws can enfranchise Ijaws in Europe and America to be part of deciding who leads them, INEC can equally do it. It will check violence, criminality and state institutions being politicised”, he added.
Giving his charge to the new executive committee of the apex Ijaw socio-cultural body, the governor stressed the need for the body to advance the cause of Ijaws to achieve equity and fairness in Nigeria.
In his inaugural address, the new INC President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, assured that the body would work for the progress of the Ijaw people.
Okaba also said the INC fully supported the recent pronouncement by governors of southern Nigeria prohibiting open grazing in the region, saying the organisation would provide the necessary support to ensure adherence to laws aimed at protecting the people and their land against invasion from external forces.
Okaba, who stated that INC would collaborate with other ethnic minorities that share the same experiences with the Ijaws to achieve their dreams, said the ethnic group was aware of surreptitious moves by some groups to annex territories in the Niger Delta because of its resources, but that no part of Ijaw would be ceded or conquered.
“The INC wishes to use this special occasion to and in an unequivocal term remind and warn such characters that the Ijaw territory was never and will never be ceded or conquered. We belong only to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Should there be a compelling necessity to pull out of the present Nigeria, we shall go our separate ways in fulfilment of the dreams of our ancestors,” he said.
Similarly, the interim administrator of the Presidential amnesty programme(PAP), Col.Miland Dikio (rtd) has promised a cordial working relationship with the new leadership of the INC.
Dikio said a smooth and friendly working relationship with the pan-Ijaw group would ensure timely and prompt actualization of the rational behind the establishment of the programme.
“The Presidential amnesty programme would work and continue to relate properly with the INC and other ethnic based organisations in the Niger Delta towards the success of programme”, he said.
By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa