2023: Unified Nigerian Youth Forum passes vote Of confidence on INEC chairman
By: Austine Emmanuel, Kaduna
As the 2023 general election draw closer, group under the auspices of U2023: Unified Nigerian Youth Forum Passes Vote Of Confidence On INEC Chairmannified Nigerian Youth Forum, (UNYF) has passed a vote of confidence on the National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
The National President, UNYF, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, made this known to Journalists during a world press conference held in Kaduna on Friday, said the INEC Chairman is committed to deliver credible poll for Nigerians in February, 2023.
Abdulsalam who lamented over the current call for the sack of the INEC Boss by some groups, said those calling for his sack are enemies of Nigerians, adding that INEC under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has witnessed vigorous transformation in all areas especially in the adoption of electronic voting and the recent Electoral Bill signed into law by president Muhammadu Buhari.
“Despite the giant strides recorded by the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood especially in the area of deploying cutting edge technology such as Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for credible, fair and transparent elections as well as voter mobilisation and enlightenment.
“It is in public domain, the activities of certain group of persons purporting to be promoting the interest of the north and Nigeria, but sadly working for the enemies of the nation, this persons have continued to falsely accused and demand the resignation and sack of the INEC Boss for carrying out his mandate. Those behind this act are nothing but paid agents and goons of selfish and unpatriotic politicians seeking to manipulate next years general elections at all cost.”
UNYF also debunked an alledged compromise that the Commission denied some persons from the north central an extended period of voter registration as a result of network shutdown for military operations, noting that the statement is false and misleading.
“The allegations that INEC acted in a morally compromised way and denied some persons from the north west and north central an extended period of voter registration as a result of the network shutdown for special military operations is false and misleading. The issue of voter registration by INEC is centrally controlled and it is impossible to open the portal for only a particular region.
“INEC at the request of Nigerians, (our Organisation inclusive) and the National Assembly, extended voter registration severally to enable all Nigerians to register and exercise thier franchise. Besides, the exercise is continuous and repetitive, so how come certain persons are grumbling when INEC opened the portal severally after the era of telecommunication shutdown.
“INEC is established by law and has a law guiding its activities. No individual can wake up and decide to deactivate the use of BVAS when the law says it should be deployed.
“Those who make allegations like this are out to tarnish the reputation of the Independent National Electoral Commission and that of its indefatigable Chairman. Nigerians must not fall to such antics especially now that the general elections is at hand, politicians are jittery and will say/ do anything to make noise.
“In the recent elections conducted by INEC under the leadership of professor Mohmud Yakubu, INEC has earned our nation global recognitions among the committee of Nation; the era of shadow chasing is over, rather political parties should face reality and stop the blackmail against the ELECTORAL umpire.
“We are equally worried and concerned with the barefaced lie in some quarters that 15,000 foreigners were registered in September alone in the Ward of the current Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma. Nothing can be more misleading and dishonest than this claim especially now that INEC has recently sanitized the voter register with more than 2 million double registrants expunged.
“The allegations of ghost voters, registration of foreigners and preloaded fake accreditation as insinuated by mischief makers is unintelligent, shallow and unfounded. How did the foreigners gain entry into the country without detection by the Nigerian Immigration Services/ state security services? Does Imo State share border with any foreign country? How will those fake preloaded accredited electorates cast their votes or will they be giving ballots in polling stations without on-site accreditation? This is laughable and should be disregarded.” He added.
The forum called for all asundry to mobilize and support the commission towards the conducts of 2023 General elections, reiterated that “we believe 2023 election will be the best in our nation history, we wish to also call on INEC to ensure the timely arrival and delivery of all sensitive and non-sensitive materials to all nooks and crannies with commitmented/ loyal staff to the Nation against the normal tradition and ensuring they recruit capable adhoc staff.”
