Edo: Group lauds INEC on conduct of election

 

The National Consultative Front (NCFront), has lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the success of the just concluded Edo election.

The group’s Head of Publicity, Mr Tanko Yunusa gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.

Gov. Godwin Obaseki, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, was reelected in Saturday’s election, defeating his closest rival, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.

INEC on Sunday, declared Obaseki winner of the election with 307,955 votes to defeat Ize-Iyamu who scored 223,619 votes.

Yunusa who commended INEC on the use of a new technology, the Z-pad, said that the gadget eliminated the rigging machines of collation centers.

NAN reports that the Z-pad is a gadget used by the commission to upload the polling units election result to INEC election result viewing portal.

Yunusa said: “You must give the process some kudos. When INEC introduced Z-Pad, it helped to checkmate the social maleficence that usually happens at collation centres.

“Now that the collation centres have been eliminated, you see that the people’s vote counted at the end.

“This is a welcome development and there is an improvement in the process as we move on in our democratic setting.

“It was a hard working process that yielded result.

“It also shows that god father’s are demystified and the people are taking their destiny in their hands,” Yunusa said.

Yunusa who is also the National Chairman, National Conscience Party (NCP), commended security agencies and the electorate in spite of actions by the political parties to buy their votes.

“The truth is that the people’s will prevailed. For us, it is an opportunity that the people have been able to show resilience and determination based on their collective resolve that they needed a change of process, the way they voted.

“So they decided to vote for candidate of their choice in spite of all forms of attempts to manipulate the system, but that didn’t work,” he added. (NAN)