Senator Jarigbe advocates laws for credible LG polls in Cross River
By Victor Akan
Sen. Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe (PDP-Cross River) has decried the practice where the ruling party at the state level always wins all the chairmanship and councillorship positions during Local Government elections.
Agom-Jarigbe who represents Cross River North in the National Assembly, said this in Ogoja while fielding questions from newsmen on the state council polls on Saturday.
He said the practice was not only undemocratic, but prevents the election of the best person that would serve the interest of the people at the grassroots level.
He vowed to collaborate with members of the 10th Assembly to entrench democracy at the grassroot level.
“That is why we want to amend the law to make local government elections more democratic. What they are doing now is ‘selectocracy’ They will select who they want and then swear them in.
“The National Assembly is determined to make an electoral law that will strengthen the electoral institution in that regard and make our elections at local government level more free and fair,” he told newsmen.
On the Cross River council polls, Agom-Jarigbe said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remained the party to beat in spite of its opposition status today in the state.
He said even the ruling All Progressives Congress could attest to the popularity of the candidates presented by PDP for the elections across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
He urged the party’s supporters to eschew violence even in the face of provocation during and after the polls.
The senator however urged the supporters to vote and defend their votes.
“We know that Cross River North is PDP and PDP is Cross River North. If they should announce the real results, these men standing in front of me should be your chairmen.
“We shall defend our votes, but we will not beat anybody, shed blood or destroy property. Our brothers and sisters are very precious to us. You must not die, you must not get injured.
“Stand in your polling unit, vote and defend your vote. The security men are not our enemies, they will be there to protect all of us, not to unleash brutality, what we want is a peaceful election, ”he said.
Tarakirivoice reports that 10 political parties are participating in the polls.
The election will be conducted in 3,281 polling units, as approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission, 9,843 ad-hoc staff, 460 supervisors and 18 returning officers.
Similarly 198 collation officers have been recruited for a successful exercise.
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