Diaspora Group Begs Nigerians Not To Shun Gov’ship, Assembly Polls

A group, Diaspora Medics for Good Governance (DM4GG) has appealed to Nigerian voters to come out en masse for tomorrow’s governorship and state assembly elections and not to be deterred by the irregularities in the presidential polls.

The group said Nigerians should vote for candidates that will promote good governance in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In a statement co-signed by the directors of DM4GG – Dr Chukwudi Muojieje, Dr Kunle Adedeji, Dr Chete M Eze-Nliam, Dr Idu Nwapa, Prof Dilly Anumba, and Mrs Maureen Aghomon, they noted the widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct of the presidential election on February 25, and appealed to Nigerian voters not to be deterred by the irregularities, but to come out in large numbers to perform their civic duties by voting on March 18, 2023.

The statement reads in part, “The Diaspora Medics for Good Governance (DM4GG), a diaspora-based group comprising mainly medical professionals with the vision of restoring Nigeria’s health and related sectors to their full potential, has expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the February 25 Presidential election, noting that it was characterized by irregularities and electoral manipulations.

“DM4GG believes that good governance is indispensable to the actualization of a vibrant and healthy society and therefore appeals to Nigerian voters to come out and carry out their civic duties by voting on March 18, 2023 during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.”

The group added that in order to avert irregularities and rigging at the forthcoming Governorship and State House of Assembly elections on March 18, it has evaluated and endorsed the WhatsApp Bot developed by Mrs. Itoro Liney to be used to report election results from the polling Units across the 176,974 Polling Units in the country. DM4GG strongly recommends that voters report the conduct and results of the elections in their Polling Unit (PU) using this Bot, accessible via the link as follows: https://t.co/e3coD4RDN1.

Giving an explanation on how to use the WhatsApp Application, the group said that “the idea is to send results from our respective polling units to a central collating place, so that the true results are documented in real time and compared to the eventual official results declared by INEC, thereby ensuring that we can have confidence in the process.

“The first step is to send a WhatsApp message (such as “Hi”) to +1234-901-3331 (also accessible via this link: https://t.co/e3coD4RDN1). You will receive a reply from the Bot asking you to identify your state from a list of states, followed by your local government area (LGA) from a list of LGAs, then your Ward from a list of Wards, and finally your polling unit (from a list of polling units). Once you choose your PU, it will ask which election you want to submit a result for, followed by which party and candidate you want to report for, and the number of votes that the candidate received at your PU. It will then give you options to add the votes for each of the other candidates at the election. At the end you will also be able to upload an image of the duly signed Form EC8 which captures the final vote tally for all the participating parties. Uploading this form is very important if you have an image of it on your camera.”