The Nigerian Youth Congress has called on the leadership of Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to as a matter of urgency purge her staff in kogi state, to rekindle the confidence of the electorate in the system.
Similarly, Prof. S. Muhammad Adam, SAN, the Supervising National Commissioner should be advised not to further allow the influence of his marriage to a lady from Kogi State, with the trust bestowed on him by President and Nigeria people at large.
The NYC said, the call became necessary to forestall the pitfall of some of its staff in the conduct of November 16, 2019 kogi state gubernatorial election, and Presidential National Assembly and state elections of February 25, 2023 and March 25,2023 respectively.
In a press release made available to journalists in Lokoja on Friday, the spokesperson of the Youth group Comrade Alfa Ebune described the outcome of the elections in kogi state as the worst in the history of elections in the country.
The statement decried the continued retention of those officials in the state identified to have compromised their integrity in those elections.
He commended the former National Chairman, Professor Atahiru Jega, for the introduction of NYSC members as polling unit officials, Members of Academic staff of tertiary institutions as collation/returning officers as well as its permanent staff as Returning and Collation officers, saying the policy gave credibility to the elections.
The statement disclosed that not less than ten staff were redeployed to other states due to public outcry, wondered why majority of her staff at the local Government Councils who are the principal executors of the elections were let unattended to in spite of the public outcry demanding for their transfer on account of suspected high level abuse of office particularly: Sani Wase, Emmanuel Ihunga, Joy Allah, Grace Abalaka and Raliat Mohammed that reasons for their retention appears strange! hiding under marriage as indigene is not an excuse after all other married men from other states are also here. No matter how hard the Commission tries to convince the people of its ability to conduct free, fair and credible November 11 governorship election involvement of these Electoral Officers will not guarantee the desired results.
He applauded the courage of the National Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu for his courage in transferring the erstwhile Administrative Secretary who was believed to have been neck deep in malfeasance.
The statement urged the management to totally clean the remaining bad eggs, known as “Chips Of the Old Block.” who were not affected by the recent purge.
According to the statement,” The impression created by the former Administrative Secretary, Engr. Tanko is the fact that the Resident Electoral Commissioner,Dr. Hale Longpet was the architect behind most of the notorious activities of the Commission in Kogi State, but our investigation revealed that the REC was completely not in the picture of the whole issues. Rather, it was the Administrative Secretary who was actually the brain behind the atrocities of the Commission against free, fair credible and transparent election, and was the Commission’s wolf in cheap clothing.
“Now that the arrow heads are gone, we humbly demand that all the left behind Electoral Officers who participated in 2015 General and off-season Elections to date should be drop immediately and should be made to fully step aside from any involvement in the forthcoming November 11, 2023, due to loss of confidence” He demanded.
While assuring the electorate that a free fair and credible election is still possible under Dr. Hale Longpet administration , urged him to prove his worth by putting round pegs in round holes and to maintain high level neutrality through out the electioneering process