Senator Bassey Otu casting his vote
By PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
Cross River State Governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bassey Otu, has expressed confident that his party will emerge victorious at the end of voting.
Senator Otu said this Saturday after casting his vote at Efute ward Okurekang Odukpani local government Area of the state.
He said: “I am so happy to have you here in my country home. The way things are going just as I said last week that was going to work on few areas that had issues, I want you to believe each and everyone has come to this realization because voting here started exactly on time and not too many issues, I think everything is just going on smoothly”
“For Cross Riverians please for those who have not yet voted in areas that voting have taken off please go and cast your votes because it is good for everyone to participate in this process, so that who ever emerges, they’ll know is the real winner”
“Here, I think that more voters have come actually than the exercise that was done and the only area some people are complaining is the Akpabuyo and Bakassi area. The issue we have in Bakassi where Nigerians have been declared refugees in their own country because their land was ceded and handed over illegally, people are scattered all over and because they’re registered in Bakassi there’s need for them to come from their different locations to go and exercise their franchise.”
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“We were told that this people were blocked by the military. I’ve not got the current situation there but I want to believe they are allowed to go and vote”
“The votes apathy, some of them steamed from the fact that internal democracy and party, where party allow the will of the people to prevail, people will be more comfortable to vote and will come out to vote and I know that the incoming Cross River State should I emerge as the winner, internal democracy will be number one to make such that the true will of the people prevail”
“For me, I believe that election should not come with destruction, i believe that things should be very peaceful.”
“If you look at the whole of this area, the orderliness is something that even we are shocked in that event that took place. I want to believe that it’s under investigations and they will know exactly what to do. So I will not say anything on that except that I will condemn the act of violence but in terms of the road leading to here, the perception is going to change there’s no doubt about that, definitely not just here but Cross River as a whole.”
“Yes, I have full confidence on the BVAS. If you want to look at the election INEC have been conducting over the years, right from 1999 till date, even at bye election, you’ll see that somehow they’ll step up their game. People must not forget where we are coming from and the type of greed that has been injected into the politics. The fact that our economy is very bad and people are looking at election probably as the only way out,as a result of that it becomes a total war and at times INEC is at the receiving end.
“INEC must also be given benefit of doubt to continue to make sure that they perfect all their arrangements. There were issues with the BVAS but I don’t think that those issues should be key issues in giving judgement that BVAS is not working. I want to believe that INEC will continue to scale up with technology and everything to ensure that BVAS will deliver to the benefit of Nigerians.”
I don’t think there’s a lot of challenge with the BVAS, I went, there was no delay, I was captured and the tick came out and I voted so I believe that moving forward they’ll continue to make sure that things are added that will make it completely fine”, he said.
