Senatorial Bye-Election: PDP Candidate Laments Challenge Posed By BVAS

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP candidate in the senatorial bye -election for the Rivers South East District, Olaka Nwogu has said Nigeria should be cautious in over reliance on the use of technology in its elections.

Nwogu stated this in an interview shortly after casting his vote at his polling unit in Alesa Ward one, Eleme Local Government Area on Saturday.

Speaking on the general conduct of the election, the one time senator said reports he had received from other locations across the seven local government areas making up the senatorial district indicated that there was no violence of any sort.

However he said reports of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) malfunctioning were common.

“People have been calling me, and from the reports, there has been no violence anywhere. The tentative challenge has been that of the BVAS. But I believe that INEC is working hard to fix the problem. Despite that, our people really turned out to vote.

But going forward, I think we should be cautious of over reliance on technology, except proven technology. But technology just by name will be a challenge. Technology should not cause disenfranchisement. So we need to invest in proven technology so that this process can work”, he maintained.

Nwogu who is gunning to replace late Sen. Barinada Mpigi in the upper chamber in the National Assembly attributed his strides in politics first to God and his constituents

“I always say this thing, destiny is important. Work with your people and trust in God. It is important you have a relationship with your people. If your people will not accept you, nobody will put you on any ballot. But even at that, you need God to raise your steps to favour”, he said.

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He expressed optimism that he would win the election adding that he would be pro people in all contributions he would make on the floor of the senate.

Apart from the malfunctioning of the BVAS, the election generally was marred by voter apathy as most polling units where our correspondent monitored were virtually empty.

Many drinking joints made brisk business as people who couldn’t go to their businesses because of the election resorted to drinking joints to while away the time.

One of them told our correspondent that he couldn’t vote because he did not find Rainbow Coalition on the ballot since Rainbow Coalition has been the order of the day in the state championed by the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike.