By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

AS Nigerians count few hours to 2023 general elections, over 200 Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, Friday, tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, security agencies, and other relevant organisations on credible polls that would be acceptable by Nigerians.

The call was made during a pre-election conference in Gelegele, Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State with theme ‘Gelegele Declaration on the 2023 General Elections’ called for zero tolerance to electoral violence from all political parties and their agents as well as voters even as he warned against vote-buying the politicians and their supporters as contained in a statement signed by the Co-convener of the group and Executive Director, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, the Rev David Ugolor.

During the meeting, the CSOs called for zero tolerance to electoral violence by political parties through their agents at the polling units including voters and politician as against voter selling and buying.

During the declaration, the CSOs acknowledged that INEC had recorded some improvements with introduction of technology from the Card Reader to the Bimodal Voters’ Accreditation System, BVAS, and expressed optimism that with the BVAS vote-buying, ballot box snatching, vote buying, multiple voting, forged election results, delayed and doctored number of voters, ghost names, violence, and other form of manipulations will drastically reduce or become a thing of the past.

However, the CSOs expressed concern over rising insecurity challenges across the country that could impede the electoral process, whereby pointed out that security threats orchestrated by some groups including the IPOB, Boko-Haram and ISWAP members, and enough should be done to counter them, and also condemned their statements, which they asked IPOB, Boko-Haram and ISWAP members to reconsider their stance and allow peaceful elections in the country.

CSOs in attendance of the declaration meeting include Grassroots organisations, pro-democracy organisations, human rights groups, academia, feminist organisations, artisanal groups, and persons living with disabilities.

The declaration reads in part, “We call on security agents to provide top notch security across the country to ensure that no form of violence is allowed to fester in any part of the country, particularly in flash points where insurgents have threatened to unleash mayhem.

“Again, security agents deployed for the elections should promptly arrest anyone or group of persons found sharing money at polling stations or other designated election materials sharing centres and venues. Security agents must be professional in the discharge of their election duties and must shun any form of inducements or act of corruption.”

They counseled registered voters to use their PVCs, “As we believe that the election would change the story of the country for better once all eligible voters are allowed to freely exercise their franchise.”