Gov. Bello calls for patience over polls postponement

By Saka Bolaji – Minna

Niger state Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello has described the postponement of the general elections by one week as an unfortunate development, but appealed to Nigerians to exercise understanding and patience. The governor in a statement said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must have weighed the various options before arriving at the painful conclusion of postponing the elections. He noted that the Chairman of the Independent INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, admitted that it was difficult for the commission to arrive at the decision of postponing the elections. “The postponement of these elections is unfortunate, but going by the INEC chairman’s statement the decision to shift the elections was necessary for the commission to successfully deliver its mandate of conducting credible, free and fair elections for the consolidation of our democracy. “In the light of this, I want to appeal for the understanding of our people. I strongly believe that the electoral body meant well for the country.
All we need to do at this crucial period is to join hands together with INEC to ensure that a credible, free and fair election is delivered for the good of our fledgling democracy. “I want to appeal to our people to be patient and be calm. We should not allow any divisive agent within and outside the country to cash on this development to truncate the solid foundation laid since 2015.
Let us all go after our daily activities and wait patiently for the new dates announced by INEC for the elections. “I also call on the electoral body to ensure that it puts its house in order and get its acts together for an election that will be adjudged as credible, free and fair on the new dates announced for the elections,” the governor charged. Absolving the federal government of any complicity in the postponement of the elections, Gov. Bello maintained that “the federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to the conduct of a credible, free and fair elections and he has done everything humanly possible to support the electoral body by granting all their demands.”