A non-governmental organisation, YIAGA Africa, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the governorship election holding in Kogi State on Nov. 16 is transparent and credible.
Thr Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Samson Itodo, who made the call during a press conferenece in Lokoja on Friday, tasked the INEC to conduct the election in accordance with electoral guidelines to forestall complaints of bias and illegality.
He said that the electoral body should ensure that polling result sheets were pasted at the polling units and the ward collation centres as required by law.
Itodo warned politicians not to throw the state into violence, but to allow peace to prevail, to enable voters to exercise their civic responsibility.
“The candidates and their supporters should not resort to illegal and constitutional means to seek redress, if any, but instead avail themselves to the electoral law,” he said.
The executive director appealed to voters to turn out en masse and conduct themselves peacefully at all the polling units, so that their votes would count at the end of the exercise.
According to Itodo, the Watch The Vote arm of the organisation will deploy 526 persons to 250 polling units across the 21 local governments, while it would also deploy 21 observers to collation centres.
He called on the police and other security agencies to conduct themselves professionally and avoid harassment of journalists, observers and eligible voters. ( NAN)
