The Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria has urged Nigerians to remain patriotic and resilient to achieve desired end result of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The CEO, of Caritas Nigeria, Rev.Fr. Uchechukwu Obodeoehina who made the call yesterday in Abuja, advised that peace should be maintained and that the high spirits should not be dampened by naysayers.
“We affirm once more that the INEC has a responsibility to organize and deliver a free, fair, credible, secure, and inclusive election.
“While the hope and trust that Nigerians have on them is arguably dashed, we cannot but state, most unequivocally, that things are beginning to fall apart,” he said.
He said that the present political challenges is not the path Nigerians desired having risen from the shattering wreckages done by the Military rulership before 1999.
Obodeoehina said, “We recommend with immediate effect, that ballot audit, fresh conduct of elections in areas where overwhelming violence took the day, and the seamless overhauling of most of the commissioners of the INEC must happen to avert civil disobedience.
“We urge fellow Nigerians not to be discouraged but to wait patiently for the full results of the pool and go out for the next round of the elections come 11th March 2023.”
Speaking on BVAS, he said with about four years of preparation for the 2023 General Elections, no justifiable reason can help placate the impact of the malfunctioning of the BVAS.
He said, “The idea of the usage of the BIVAS machine for this particular election is not only embarrassing but an insult to the sensibility of Nigerians who waited under the rain and sunshine and still got disenfranchised because of the colossal incapacity to use the BVAS rightly.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that a great deal of Nigerians was disenfranchised arising from the malfunctioning of the BVAS, sheer political thuggery, and daylight disruptions of the voting processes.
Speaking further, he lamented that sensitive and non-sensitive materials were burnt by thugs; voters and observers were beaten to stupor in the full glare of security personnel who not only watched these happen, but participated in the charade in some Polling Units (PUs) in Lagos, FCT, Delta, and Rivers states.
