….as INEC allays fears on machine, new Electoral law,stresses importance to electorates
The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, CHRIS FINEBONE has expressed reservation on the over-reliance on the BVAS machines by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a credible election in 2023 pointing out that it is still a major source of concern for parties, voters and stakeholders..
FINEBONE made the remark, at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Correspondents’ Week of the Federated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Port Harcourt.
Declaring the event open, as the Special Guest of Honour , Finebone lauded the Chapel for a well-thought out programme, describing it as apt. According to him, the turnout of the events across the country calls for sober reflection. He therefore tasked the Correspondents’ Chapel to tailor its programme towards that mood.
The commissioner said the country is majorly under siege, and sympathized with journalists, who he said are more in the eye of the storm. He said only journalists who know their onus will weather through the storm, promising that the media friendly governor of Rivers State, Barr Nyesom Wike will continue to support the media in Rivers State.
Earlier in his opening address, the Chairman of the Correspondents ‘Chapel, Amaechi Okonkwo had informed the dignitaries and media colleagues that graced the occasion that the whole essence of the week is to get the commitment of the major players, like INEC, political parties, Civil Society and the media in the forthcoming general elections for peaceful and credible polls. He reminded the political parties that it does not make sense to attempt to kill or maim the people to win election, as such need to play by the rules.
Amaechi said “They should not in the pursuit of their own interests disrupt our own lives by making the environment unconducive for us to continue with our own endeavors. We need to tell them that they don’t need to kill us before they get our votes to rule us”.
He emphasized that their target for choosing the theme is to bring in political parties to make commitment to the journalist and the people in the state, that election will be peaceful..
Our correspondent reports that the Chairman of the event, a veteran journalist Jossy Nwokocha while speaking on the theme “2023 Correspondents’ week : Media Vigilance Ahead Of Peaceful 2023 Election in Rivers State, urged journalists to aviod disseminating news without proper verification, as this will heat the polity of the state.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has said that the new electoral law has empowered the electorate to monitor every process throughout the election apart from snapping picture inside the voting boot.
Speaking at the flag-off of Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),Rivers State Council “2023 Correspondents’ week” in Port Harcourt, the Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) Johnson Alalibo represented by the Director of INEC Voters Education and information Mark Usulo said this will rule out the possibility of rigging the 2023 General election in Nigeria.
Usulo who was the keynote Speaker, spoke on the intensity of the forthcoming general elections, noting that the media will play a key role in any successful election globally.
He said “the issues of inputting numbers into bi-modal machine will not arise as the commission has trained stakeholders, party agents on what BIVAS Machine looks like and its functionality, and to also report immediately any BIVAS machine deployed to any ward that is not tagged, or starting or taking off from zero zero 0000”..
Mr Usulo debunked the recent Rumour that RAC centers were being sited at residential buildings, describing it as unfounded. The REC while commending the media for a job well done so far, challenged them to prepare the ground for public debate by political parties, as agenda setters. He said INEC has decided to accredit all the media Organisations for the forthcoming general elections online for fairness. He assured that INEC is ready to conduct a peaceful 2023 general elections.
He emphasized that the BVAS and PVCs will be used for the conduct of the said poll and appealed to Journalists to escalate the information widely.
He also noted that ” the BVAS has been configured to work with all networks available in all location, and the the BAVS also has a special feature of offline mode to be activated when there is no network and any information keyed in will automatically be entered into the BIVAS when the network returns ruling out on the possibility of power and network failures to affect the process”.
Mr Usulo advised on electorate vigilance throughout the process and the electoral laws has given power back to the people to report any misgivings on election day.
