Senatorial Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno South, Kudla Satumari Haske, has countered plans by some politicians for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to use the Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation Machine System (BIVAS), saying people of the state would resist such plans.
According to Haske, not only Borno, some politicians want to cajole INEC into believing that electronic voting and transmission of election results cannot take place in areas where insecurity was experienced.
Reacting to an interview granted by the chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Sen Ali Ndume, that his community in Borno South had no internet connectivity for electronic election conduct, Haske said their supporters who are from the same communities were participating actively and campaigning for them online.
“Even if I am not in the village, it is our supporters that always send links of stories to our WhatsApp lines. They have WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and communicate with us even on Twitter.
“We will not allow what happened in 2019 to repeat again. We have internet connectivity in Borno South and Borno State. We will not keep quiet for some individuals to mislead the public and the electoral umpire. Elections can be held in every Borno community with the use of BIVAS. So, if anyone says there is no internet in my senatorial district, it is not a true reflection of the situation. There will not be any challenge if BIVAS is used. BIVAS will improve election transparency. No one can rig this election if INEC uses BIVAS and that is what we want from INEC.
“I want to assure the people that in my local government, there is no community where there is no mobile communication. They want to bring in a narrative that elections cannot be held electronically. How can my people who are engaging us on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms be said to be offline?
“Let INEC collaborate with the security agencies to do what they are supposed to do.
When Jonathan extended the election and carried out extensive security operations, “ election was held in every part of Borno State. Now that the APC government said they have degraded the insurgents, we don’t want an excuse that BIVAS cannot be used,” Haske said.
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