The plans by the Akwa Ibom state governor, Udom Emmanuel, to recruit and assign 1000 youths to each of the 2890 polling units across the state has pitched him and some political parties on war path.
Accordingly, the Association of Registered Political Parties in Akwa Ibom State has raised concerns over plans by the governor to deploy 1,000 people per polling unit to defend the votes of the PDP.
They have also expressed sadness over what they described as the failure of the INEC leadership in the state to inspire the confidence of all parties in the political process by reason of the actions of the commission and the utterances of its leaders.
Chairman of the association, Mr Kingsley Akaiso of Fresh Party, said in Uyo Tuesday decried the plan to deploy 1,000 people per polling unit when most of them could not boast of more than 500 voters, describing it as a threat to the sanctity of the election process.
“We want to call the attention of the security agencies and members of the public in general to the open boast by the state governor that he had made provisions for ‘1000 vote defenders’ for each polling unit during the elections. Since the state has 2980 polling units, the governor would have to use ‘2,980,000 vote defenders.’
“I want to ask the security agencies and the public at large to see the connection between that boast by the governor and the flooding of the state on the eve of the re-scheduled elections with thugs and terrorists imported from other states in the nation.
Also, the association has accused INEC of conniving with the state government in the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the election.
“INEC has betrayed unbridled partisanship through the selection of its ad hoc staff, some of whom are drawn from the employees of the commission, contrary to extant practices and institutional requirements.
“Through connivance with the state government, all the ad hoc staff of the commission are made up of loyal members and supporters of the PDP. In addition, the commission has acted as though it were part of the Government House in Uyo,” he said.
Akaiso, who did not list the parties that are against INEC’s recruitment of ad hoc staff, said the INEC headquarters was yet to act on its demand to be involved in the recruitment.
“We are, therefore calling on the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police and the DSS director general to take a peculiar look at Akwa Ibom state, and accordingly beef up security in the state with more operatives and armed forces personnel.”
