Akwa Ibom REC: LG Elections in Nigeria are Organised Crimes

SaysNigerianmediatostartprojectingelectionresults

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Mike Igini, has described local government elections in Nigeria as nothing but organised crimes.

Igini has also said with the deployment of the INEC results portal, the Nigerian media will soon start projecting election results like their counterparts in the United States.

Speaking when he featured on live television programme yesterday, Igini said the kind of people who come into politics sometime determine the outcome of an election while alleging that interference at the grassroots affect the conduct of elections.

“Look at the local government system in Nigeria. We have lost 774 local governments in Nigeria to governors of the 36 states in Nigeria.

“Local government elections are nothing but organised crime. They should not be calling them elections at all. They are nothing but coronation ceremony that we have across Nigeria and Nigerians are not doing anything about it; that you have lost your LG, that there is no democracy taking place there - because what constitutes free, fair and credible elections with respect to INEC-conducted election is different from the local government.”

Igini said INEC has made remarkable progress in the conduct of elections even though it is not where it ought to be.

He said the use of public viewing portal used during the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states removed possible electoral fraud as Nigerians saw the results of each polling unit online almost immediately after casting their votes.

“I can confirm that INEC has made tremendous progress. The INEC of today is no longer the INEC of before because, since 2011, the kind of elections that we have conducted had a remarkable departure from where we used to be even though we are not where

we are supposed to be,” he said.