Ugochukwu Alaribe – Umuahia

The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC),  Abia State chapter, said on Wednesday Nigerians had lost confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to obvious flaws and compromises in the conduct of elections in recent years.

The Chairman of IPAC in the state,  Ceekay Igara, who stated this while unveiling other members of the Council new executive committee in Umuahia, lamented that INEC had fallen short of the expectations of Nigerians due to its poor handling of recent elections in the country.

Igara, who is also the state Chairman of Labour Party, attributed the low turnout of voters in the state during the last elections to fast dwindling public confidence in INEC.

He said: “People no longer trust the system. In the last elections, there were areas where result sheets didn’t get to, and there were areas they used photocopies of result sheets.

“The INEC we have today is not the INEC which IPAC can work with.”

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He urged the Commission to purge itself to regain public confidence in subsequent elections in the country.

He, however, said the new leadership of IPAC in the state would explore ways to sensitise and mobilize voters in the state to actively participate in the political process.

Igara also promised that IPAC as a key stakeholder in the political process of the state would continue to engage the government in power on the right policies and programmes for good governance.

He said: “Our work as an advisory committee is to offer useful advice to government. If we want to fight the government, we will go back to our various party platforms but the truth is that if we continue to fight the government, it is our people that will suffer because the government will still use the money meant for development to fight back.”

Vanguard