By Jude Atupulazi
As the countdown to the 2027 General Elections draws near, the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone in the National Assembly, Chief Sir Victor Umeh, has called for collective action by all Nigerians desirous of a better Nigeria, to prevent their mandate from being thwarted. Umeh, who stated this, Thursday, in Awka, also said his party, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, was very much ready to protect its mandate.
Umeh who was reacting to the recent disclosure by a chieftain of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, about the discovery of the use of artificial intelligence to doctor the voters register, leading to the registration of fictitious names, said the body language of INEC was suspicious, even as he noted the court judgement nullifying the leadership of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, had further left people with doubts about INEC’s sincerity in conducting free and credible polls.
However, he said it was every Nigerian’s duty who needed a change, to work towards protecting their mandate.
‘If Nigerians are truly not satisfied with what the present government has done, they should mobilize themselves to stand for change,’ he said, citing how Americans recently expressed what he described as their disgust with their leadership in the Mid Term Polls.
Umeh said the people’s vote was their weapon for change in any system which they would use to resist bad governance. He said it was necessary, because those who had power were not ready to relinquish it, but noted that the people’s power would always overwhelm them.
‘Everybody has to be prepared. In our case, NDC, we’re working hard to build up resistance to electoral result manipulation by ensuring that we put agents in every polling unit,’ he said, disclosing that a minimum of three agents would be available in every polling unit, one each for presidential, senatorial and federal house candidates. Umeh said those agents and others would work together for NDC.
‘We know the first thing they do is to make efforts to defend the sanctity of the ballot box, so that what is put there will be brought out and recorded. People are being trained for that,’ he said.
