Ayade receives new REC, pledges peaceful atmosphere for elections
Emmanuel Alfred
Cross River State Governor, His Excellency, Sen Prof Ben Ayade last week promised thar the State will have elections in a peaceful atmosphere in 2023.
He made this pledge while receiving the new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to the state, Dr Alalibo Sinikiem Johnson at the Conference Room of the Governor’s Office, Calabar.
Ayade tasked Dr Johnson on free, fair and credible elections in the State, adding that given the new REC’s track records and integrity, he had no doubt he would deliver.
“On behalf of the good people of Cross River State, l hereby give you the commitment to ensure a you free and safe elections; we also call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to please honour its pledge too so that we can have free, fair, credible, reliable and dependable elections.
“Government is not going to in any way influence your process, but we want to say that we are available and willing to support you at all times that INEC will so require our services.”
Sen Ayade then commended the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu “who has distinguished himself in this country.”
Further pouring encomiums on the INEC boss, the Governor said: “Never before have we had an INEC Chairman who has enjoyed the mutual trust from both the ruling party and the opposition parties.
“This is one Chairman who has conducted his elections and results returned based on what is on the ground.
“He is not subject to any inducement, he is subject to the God that he serves and l want to say that his name would go down in history as one of the very best INEC Chairmen that we have ever had. God bless him and God will continue to sustain him.”
Earlier in his speech, Dr Johnson harped on the need for a conducive atmosphere, saying that it is what is needed for free and fair elections to thrive.
“There is no way we can conduct a free and fair election without security. We call on you to use your good offices to ensure that we have peace in the state. Peace in the sense that people can move freely to vote for candidates of their choice, and also, we at INEC can do our job without intimidation”. Dr Johnson said.
The REC disclosed that about 90,00 uncollected PVCs are listed across the 18 local government areas of the state and appealed to the registrants to come forward and pick up their PVCs.
With the creation of new Polling units, the INEC REC said, Cross River now has 3281 Polling units.
