The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to improve on its performance in the governorship and state houses of assembly elections slated for March 11.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, a former presidential candidate, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, said despite their reservations about the conduct of last Saturday’s election, particularly the collation of results, the presidential candidates of various political parties who contested against the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have conducted themselves as patriots.
The APC chieftain also urged the president-elect to carry everyone along in the scheme of things when he takes over from President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.
He said, “I urge INEC to improve its operations in the conduct of the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, and all relevant agencies to address the dark sides of the just concluded election, such as the wide-scale voter intimidation observed in the reports of many election observers.
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“Our democracy must mature beyond the perennial problem of voter intimidation, especially voters who are considered as non-indigenes.
“We are a republic, and the franchise of all citizens must be protected regardless of their ethnic descent anywhere they have chosen to live. The democracy that my colleagues and I, some three and half decades ago, fought for and staked our lives for, is to allow the equality of all citizens and their rights to make their political choices in any corner of Nigeria they have chosen to live