Resolve all issues about BVAS before March 18 polls, Otti urges INEC

The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, has urged to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sort out all issues with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before the March 18 governorship and State assembly elections.

INEC has come under fire following the failure of the BVAS to transmit a significant number of election results from polling units in real time during the February 25 presidential election as promised by the Commission beforehand.

Speaking on his chances of winning the Abia governorship poll during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Otti said he still believes that BVAS is a game changer, but asked INEC to fix the problem with the devices.

“Despite the discussions about BVAS and all that, I still believe BVAS is a game changer and I believe that something must have gone wrong and it has to be fixed. INEC needs to redeem its image because a lot of us were very hopeful and excited that votes would count this time.

“I followed the election in Ekiti and Osun, what happened on the 25th is not a representation of what happened in Ekiti and Osun. So, my plea is that INEC should solve the problem before the election of March 18,” Otti said.

The former bank chief said if elected governor, he would embark on massive rebuilding of infrastructure that would help in reducing unemployment and creating jobs for the people of the State.

Decrying an infrastructural decay in the State, Otti regretted that Aba has lost its glory as several mass employers of labour companies have moved out of the State.

He, however, promised to bring the city back to its old glory and possibly make it better in his first four years in office as governor, upon his election on March 18.