Off Cycle Election: Atiku charges Nigerians in Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa to vote despite dissatisfaction with INEC

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar has charged residents of Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states to troop out en mass to cast their votes despite his dissatisfaction with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a statement released on his official X handle in the buildup to the 2023 off-cycle governorship election in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states, Atiku said that the shortcomings of INEC were not enough reason for Nigerians to give up on the country’s democracy.

“These elections, which are classified as off-cycle, are the first set of polls to take place after the 2023 general elections in our country. Although there is a groundswell of dissatisfaction and resentment about how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) walked back on the promise of transparency in the last general elections, but that shortcoming is not enough reason for us to give up on democracy,” post by Atiku on the X platform partly read.

It would be recalled that INEC, in the buildup to the 2023 general election, assured Nigerians that it would be transmitting results electronically. However, Nigerians were left dissatisfied after network glitches hampered the commission’s efforts to transmit results electronically.

Political analysts have suggested that the failure of the election umpire to transmit results electronically as promised might result in voter apathy in forthcoming elections.