Paramount ruler of Calabar South local government area of Cross River State, Prof. Itam Hogan Itam, Nyam Nnankor 1, has decried the high-level election malpractices that allegedly characterised the presidential and national assembly elections of February 23rd, 2019.
Speaking to DAILY POST on phone, the traditional ruler alleged that the number of those who voted in the last election outnumbered those who registered, “There were more voters than those registered, let them interpret the results very well,” he said.
The paramount ruler alleged that INEC had already decided on who would be the President, adding that “For us, we have no power to influence anything. We used our PVCs but it has no effect because the rumour we heard was that our votes did not count.”
Prof. Itam said further, “Who do you complaint to? INEC is the judge, they took decisions without minding others. We are too powerless to do anything against electoral malpractices. Who do you complain to, there is nobody to complaint to.
“Let us hope that President Buhari would be fair to all tribes in the country. Let us hope that he will look at the results very carefully. We are not interested in the party. We are interested in good governance. Let there be good governance, and everybody will be happy.
“Those of us who are in traditional institutions are happy that the election was not violent at least in our area. We thank God for that”.
The monarch maintained that what was important to him was the March 9th election, “it is the one that affect our lives directly and that is the one we are waiting for.”
The traditional ruler canvased the use of electronic voting method, saying: “We should conduct our elections using electronic method. Let they invite Indian government or electoral body to assist them install soft ware for conducting electronic voting.
“Electronic voting is the answer to electoral malpractice in Nigeria, look at how many days it takes us to count our ballot papers, the man power put into it, the resources wasted, counting of ballot papers manually is not obtainable in this present time.
“Let us do electronic voting; what are we talking about, if we start it now. Configuring our systems for electronic voting, in the next four years we shall perfect it,” he stated.
