Abuja – A call has been made by the Convener, Development Alliance of the Niger Delta, (DAND), Rev. David Ugolor, to Edo people that the April 11 Elections into the State House of Assembly should be a referendum for achievement and sustainable development for the government that has championed the cause of the people.
Ugolor said he believed that it would be a moment for the Edo people to turn out en-masse to vote in all candidates of the All Progressives Congress as a vote of confidence for the administration of Adams Oshiomhole.
“Oshiomhole has done a lot for Edo state and the one great way for the people to show him gratitude is to massively vote for All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Assembly candidates’, Ugolor said.
David Ugolor said that the victory of President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, is a historic one which demystified the myth around religion and ethnicity and that the ‘change’ message was sellable to voters because of the level of unemployment, poor performance in the economy, widespread impunity, weak institutions and weaknesses of EFCC, ICPC and other organs of government.
‘‘Key institutions like the ICPC, EFCC should be properly funded and strengthened to ensure that they are able to carry out unbiased prosecution and strengthen the judiciary. The rule of law needs to be given priority and procurement systems made effective so that the process can be transparent. Buhari should work closely with the National Assembly for the effective implementation of the procurement bill and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (NEITI) secretariat should be strengthened to play their statutory roles and ensure transparency in the Oil and Gas sector’, Ugolor said.
Rev Ugolor urged General Buhari to strengthen the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by making sure that documents of government are published for citizens to access. He praised the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega for using the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and the Smart Card Readers (SCR) during the March 28 Presidential/National Assembly Elections, a phenomenon he said brought a lot of credibility to the electoral process in Nigeria.