The Bayelsa Restoration Campaign Organisation has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its clarifications on cloned Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and stand on arrest and prosecution of anyone caught with it on election-day in the state.
The commendation was contained in a statement by the Director of Publicity of the organization, Jonathan Obuebite, who said INEC’s clarification was timely as it will serve as warning to those he claimed were planning to use cloned PVCs in the December 5 election.
He stated that such information should also be an on-going campaign by INEC to educate Bayelsans that they can only vote through valid PVCs and not with any cloned ones, accusing the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state of already cloning PVCs and recruiting youths to use them at the polls.
“So it is promising to hear INEC’s warning insisting no cloned PVCs will be allowed in the election and that culprits will be arrested and prosecuted. We want to commend INEC on this important stand because APC leaders know too well that they do not enjoy the support of our people, so they are busy devising all manner of dubious schemes to compromise the electoral system.
“They are relying on fake PVCs with the plot to hack into INEC’s database to manipulate the system in their favour. But thankfully, INEC has come out to say it will not work”, he stated.
Obuebite noted that while the APC was busy plotting to rig themselves into power at all cost, including issuing threats of deploying soldiers, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was going from one community to the other, meeting the people to solicit for their votes.
He said the PDP was engaging the people as expected in a democracy and praised Governor Seriake Dickson for the idea of community-to-community tour, meeting the people one-on-one as they were those who matter in an election.
This, he said, was a major difference between PDP and the APC.
“We are engaging with the voters and they are with us”, he said.
He also criticized APC governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva of failure as a former governor just as he claimed he is not democratic and intolerant to opposition in his time as governor of the state.
“Sylva’s abysmal record in five years is well known to all Bayelsans and come December 5, the people will speak with their votes. Even the primary in his own party was riddled with shootings and holding people hostage.
“When he was here as governor, anybody who wanted to campaign against him was attacked. Why would Bayelsans trust somebody like Sylva? Under him, there was routine diversion of public funds and impoverished the state”.
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