Learn From Presidential Election, Transmit Results From Polling Units, Ortom Tells INEC

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must transmit governorship and state assembly election results directly from polling units.

Ortom who said this after casting his vote at Tse Ortom 016 polling unit in his hometown in Gbajimba said the commission must learn from it’s mistakes during the presidential polls.

While hailing the peaceful process and high voter turnout, the Benue governor insisted that the results must be transmitted immediately from the polling units to prevent them from being doctored.

He said, “The turnout is very impressive. Its just around 9am and more people are coming. Our people are more sensitized and they are here to protect their votes until it is transmitted.

“As you can see, there is peace everywhere. We have no intention…,the opposition is jittery and that is why they have gone accusing the PDP of arming militia with weapons among others.

“You can see what is happening here. This is my hometown and everybody is on the queue to vote. All the polling units are here because of the security situation we have within our communities.

“I have tried to find out in other locations in Guma local government and other places in the state; there is no crisis whatsoever. Let everybody go and vote but let INEC do the needful.

“I hope that INEC has taken note of the grave mistake that was done during the voting exercise and transmission of results (during the presidential and national assembly elections) because you cannot shift the goal post in the middle of the game. That is what INEC did last time.”

Ortom pointed out that “The challenge is why did they not upload result of the (presidential and national assembly) election electronically as stipulated in their guidelines?
“That is what we were working with and you go and shift the goal post and that is how the election was rigged and we are completely dissatisfied with what had happened and its unacceptable and that is why we have gone to court because we are law abiding citizens and we want everybody to be free, we don’t want crisis.”