By Austin Ogwuda
ASABA—ACTIVITIES at the Delta State headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Asaba, were disrupted for about two hours, yesterday, when a group of protesters stormed the premises to protest the Commission’s insistence on using the old voters’ register to conduct the governorship re-run coming up on 6, January 2011.

The protesters,  who stormed INEC office in 50 buses were led by a former Secretary-General of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Chief Frank  Kokori,  under the aegis of ‘Deltans for free and Credible Election.’ He noted that many of Deltans would be disenfranchised if the old voters register was used for the rerun election.

As a result of the protest, movement in and out of the INEC office was disrupted as the angry protesters wield green leaves, singing solidarity songs.

However, on her part,  the gubernatorial candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Mrs Veronica Bamuza-Mutu, said she was “not worried about INEC using the old voters’ registration card, this is a repeat of the 2007 election.”

She, however, while addressing newsmen in Asaba, expressed regret that “my only worry is that the  registers have not been displayed and they are fixing January 6 for the election.

“I think that the proper thing to do at this time is for INEC to shift the state re-run election from January 6  to January 31, 2011,” she said.

The ANPP governorship candidate said the shift in date will enable INEC to conduct fair and credible elections.
“I am appealing to INEC to shift the election to the end of January because there are lots of things they needed to do. I think they should consider this proposal and shift the date.

“Though I am coming out late due to some skirmishes in selecting a candidate for the re-run in the state but I will surprises everybody in this election,” she said,  adding that “the first thing the ANPP will do under me as Governor is to be accountable to the people.

“We will also ensure better education at all levels and adequately remunerate the teachers to make them focused and improve the quality of our education among other programmes and being a woman, I feel that people will vote for us, more so I feel the men should give us chance to change things,” she added.