Ahead of this year’s gubernatorial election in the state, the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to weed itself of corrupt officials, who were fingered for aiding electoral fraud in the last general election.
The Governor made these known while meeting with the new Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Benin City, the state capital.
According to him, “Allow me, on behalf of the government and the good people of Edo State, across all the party divide to welcome you to Edo State and to pray the God almighty to protect you as He has protected your predecessors, guide you, give you wisdom, courage and robust energy to superintend over the preparations and the conduct of the forthcoming election and beyond.
“I am a believer as some of your officers on ground may have briefed you. I am a believer and a preacher of one man, one vote because for too long, the promise of democracy was compromised in our country and my campaign mantra was that you must fight election fraud, not because of me but because of our country.
“It was clear to me that unless you have an accountable government, poverty will remain endemic and society will remain unsafe. But I am happy that several years down the line, we have played our part and contributed our quota in the struggle to entrench real democracy and uphold one man one vote.
“So, your task will be to clean up even your INEC office. And we are going to be very frank about it. It’s good that you have pointed out what government should do, what the police should do, but I also need to suggest to you what you have to do, so that those people who are still in your office who are corrupt, who aid electoral fraud that they are eliminated from the process.”
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