Politics
Akawor Urges Buhari To Sign Electoral Bill
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Rivers State, Ambassador Desmond Akawor, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to enable Nigerians have credible elections in 2023.
Speaking when he received members of the National PDP Professional and Business Group, (NPPBG), in his office , on Tuesday, Ambassador Akawor said that Nigerians were looking up to President Buhari to do the right thing by signing the bill to give the country a clear electoral direction.
The PDP state chairman also observed that the delay by the President to sign the bill into law was affecting the release of guidelines for the 2023 general elections by INEC.
He lamented that the same President Buhari who returned the Electoral Amendment Bill to the National Assembly after withholding assent and making observations on it was yet to sign the document after members of the National assembly concluded the amendment and sent it back to him.
“The same government that has two arms of the National Assembly which proposed an electoral law and you said no , there are issues that should be amended, and you sent it back to them. They have done the amendment and now you cannot sign. It is unbelievable. To INEC, it is even a dilemma. They don’t know how to bring up their time table. They just don’t understand. They are confused”.
“The APC too is confused, they don’t know what to do, they keep moving the convention from one month to the other. Now I hear it’s been shifted to March. I pray they don’t shift it again. For us as a party , we’ve already conducted our own, officers have emerged and Dr. Iyorchia Ayu is our National chairman.
“All we are battling now is to do the zoning and have our Presidential candidate ready for the race”.
The State PDP chairman who reitreated that the PDP in Rivers State and South South were demanding that the Presidency must come back to the South, said that the zone would decide which part should produce the presidency after it had been zoned to it.
According to him, the North cannot insist on another four years after somebody from there has ruled the country for eight years.
He stressed the need for a radical, bold and sincere leader who would rescue the country out of its present predicament, saying that somebody like Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is the right person for the Presidency in 2023.
“I hosted some National Executives of IPAC and after taking them on a tour of the projects executed by the Government, they were asking what are we doing in this county, why are we deceiving ourselves. Nigerians should go and tell Nyesom Wike to run for the President.
“Whether we like it or not we are in a situation in this county where we need somebody who is radical and who takes “A” as A and “B” as B. Wike is somebody if he says let’s build a road from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri it will be built. We are rolling ourselves on the ground as a nation, the day we realise ourselves we will stand up and move”.
While assuring members of the National PDP Professionals and Business group of the readiness of the party to work with them, considering their enormous support and critical roles played for the party, particularly in area of advice, Ambassador Akawor urged them to organise seminars to sensitize the public on development issues.
“I want to sincerely thank you for the visit. For us the door remains open to you and we will want to continue to engage with you. If it is possible for us to have at least a small seminar with this group, the party will support you because if you don’t say I am here, nobody will say you are there. Let us work together to rescue Nigeria from excruciating pains”.
The PDP chairman also spoke very highly of Governor Nyesom Wike’s leadership in River State, emphasising that the Governor had greatly transformed the state through the execution of impactful and people-oriented projects.
‘“You don’t know a man until you give him opportunity. Nyesom Wike is a man of character. He has done excellently so well that some of us marvelled at the strength and knowledge God has bestowed on him. He has restored what Rivers State people used to be on the national scene and also given honour and respect to the PDP”.
He said there was no LGA that he could not mention at least three projects that the administration had done either in road construction, Healthcare, Education, Judiciary or Sports, adding that “the governor has left legacies of infrastructural revolution in the state”.
Earlier, the Rivers State Coordinator, National PDP Professional and Business Group, Hon. John Pascal Nalley, had said that they were at the PDP Secretariat to introduce themselves and pledged their readiness to continue to work with him for the growth of the party in the state.
Hon. Nalley called on professionals in all sectors of society to play active role in politics, noting that their expertise in people’s behaviour and resource management should be better appreciated and utilised.
He maintained that if government embraced the invaluable expertise, and experience of professional groups, development would thrive in society.
The group congratulated Akawor on his emergence as the State PDP Chairman, stressing that his ability to unite all stalwarts of the party to believe in a united Rivers State was unprecedented.
Hon. Nally also commended Governor Wike for his outstanding projects across the state, saying that his efforts had helped in making the work of the State party chairman easier.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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