By: Ishola Michael, Bauchi
Speaker of the Bauchi state House of Assembly,.Abubakar Y. Suleiman has lamented the confusion caused by some inadequacies experienced in the conduct of the presidential and NASS elections in Ningi LGA.
The Speaker was reacting to the mixed up of misplacement of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by INEC which took the machine from Gumau in Toro LGA to Ningi LGA.
He called on the INEC to as a matter of urgency take steps to correct the situation in the next election so that people will not be denied the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights of electing leaders that will leader them.
The Speaker said that, “We received report that BVAS from one local government was brought to Ningi, how do you expect electorate in that are to vote, it is very unfortunate, but I am sure that INEC will do to rectify this situation,”
Abubakar Sulaiman urged electorates in the state to shun money politics, alleging that some politicians were buying votes in a bid to win the election.
The Speaker who stated this during an interview with Journalists at his residence shortly after casting his vote at Tifi Guda polling unit in Ningi local government,appealed to the electorates in the state to vote the rigth candidates in order to salvage the country from all the challenges bedeviling it.
Abubakar Sulaiman said he was highly impressed with the massive turnout of electorate so far in the presidential and National Assembly polls, stressing that it was an indication that the people are tired of situation they are experiencing in the country and want to usher in a new government.
According to him, “So far, the turn out of electorates was very impressive from the reports I have been receiving from all over the state except for other minor reports which we were able to rectify them.”
He said that, “one of the major challenge experienced in the election is the misrepresentation of the BVAS Machines.There are also some polling units that do not have election materials which we are also following up in order to resolve it.”
“Even though there are lapses in the election, I believe that the appropriate authorities are learning all these mistakes and I believe that in the next election, all these minor issues will be addressed before the conduct of the next election.So I am calling on INEC to look into all these issues and address them” he said
The Speaker debunked the allegation by the APC that the PDP in the state was working to rig the governorship election, saying that the PDP already has the support of the masses because it has fulfilled all it’s campaign promises it made to the people of the state when it came into power.
