IPAC happy with INEC, military, winners over elections

The Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, in Cross River State has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for conducting last week’s presidential/National Assembly elections in the state almost efficiently.

Chairman of IPAC in the state, Anthony Bissong Attah also commended the army for its massive presence which helped tame possible violence during the exercise.

He said the part played by the military is enshrined in the new INEC Electoral Act.

He addressed Journalists at the NUJ press centre in Calabar alongside other parties Chairmen and secretaries, saying despite the pre-election face-off and bickering over BVAS machines and allied matters, INEC exhibited a high sense of responsibility, given the resources at their disposal.

He took time to express happiness at the victory of candidates at the end of the exercise.

“After the election, we reviewed the entire segments of the processes and found that INEC performed beyond our expectations, and hereby give them a passmark. We encourage them to do even better during next week’s governorship election.

“We commend the APC, PDP and LP candidates in the southern senatorial district that won the election, including Asuquo Ekpenyong jr of APC who won the southern Senatorial seat, Bassey Joseph of APC who won the House of Reps set for Akpabuyo/Bakassi/Calabar South, Ekpenyong Akiba of LP who won Calabar Municipality/Odukpani seat as well as Eteng Williams of APC who won the Central Senatorial seat amongst many others.

“We, however, decry what happened in the Central and reserve our commendation yet.

“In the northern district, we commend the PDP senatorial candidate, Jarigbe Agom.”

IPAC said the governorship election held on Saturday, 11 March 2023 was even very important, urging against apathy.

“The governorship election is very important. We call on eligible people to troop out en masse and vote for governorship candidates of your choice.

“The voting records in our state used to be in the region of 700,000 but last week number of voters was about 400,000 as against those registered. We should have been recording 1.2m at the polls. So we strongly appeal that our people turn out in good numbers to vote for our next governor.”