Cross River IPAC seeks redeployment of Police Commissioner, maintains stand on BVAS inspection

By Sixtus Uket (Calabar)
The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), in Cross River State, has called for the immediate redeployment of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Balarabe Sule and the DCP Operations from the State
IPAC made the call at a World Press Conference held at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre, Calabar, the State capital Monday.
The Chairman of IPAC in the State, Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah, said the call was imperative because of the poor relationship with the public and inability of the Police to gather and deploy sufficient intelligence to rescue the state from security challenges.
IPAC further called on the Inspector General of Police to immediately deploy a new and better experienced Commissioner of Police, especially a Commissioner of Police, Operations to the State.
“We want the next CP upon resumption of duty to effect a comprehensive reshuffling of Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) across the state and especially Cross River North that has become a major flashpoint of political violence in the state. “This in our considered opinion is the only safety valve to remedy the already dilapidated security architecture in our State.
IPAC also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow political parties to inspect all the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines meant for elections in the 196 political wards of the State and to take record of their IMEI numbers within 24 hours.”
“We give the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner 24 hours to allow political parties inspect the BVAS in addition to take full record of the IMEI number of the 3,281 BVAS machines to reignite and renew our confidence in the commission.
“We call on the National Chairman of INEC to authorize a thorough investigation of the activities of the commission in the State,” the group stated.
“Gentlemen of the press, it is very appalling to inform you that up till this moment we haven’t been allowed to inspect the BVAS machine. We are here therefore to let the general public note that we maintain our reservation on the true state of the BVAS machine. In fact, we are even tempted to align ourselves with the allegation by Agba Jalingo because it’s very obvious there is something INEC is not telling us. The current stalemate orchestrated by the Resident Electoral Commissioner cast a lot of doubt about the level of transparency of the commission in Cross River State. While we reaffirm our trust in the Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, we can not say same about Pastor Prof. Gabriel Yomeri,” IPAC added.
IPAC further urged political parties in the State to continue to be civil in their conduct as they continue to intensify their campaigns and to demonstrate high level sportsmanship at the end of the election.
The group further charged citizens to intensify their vigilance on the process leading to the next election as the Osun State tribunal ruling has showed clearly that human influence is capable of compromising the forthcoming election despite the application of technology.
“Finally, the Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC is the umbrella body of all the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria registered and recognized by INEC. As a group, we are constitutionally empowered to serve as a gap or a liaison between the electorate and INEC. Our role therefore, empowers us to take decisions that have to do with a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election. As we approach the 2023 general election, we have resolved to ensure that the 2023 election is conducted in all the 3,281 polling units in the 196 wards of the 18 Local government areas of the state. But in doing this, we have absolutely resolved that the 25 February 25 and March 11 elections must be conducted in the most credible and transparent manner.
“We are therefore ready to deploy all our political arsenals to ensure that unlike previous elections, this current election turns out to be the best ever conducted in the history of Cross River State,” Comrade Attach stated.
He alerted the public that the group suspected a plan to rig the forthcoming election in the State.
“This plan by powerful political forces is carefully contrived to use security and INEC as an unholy trinity to rig elections in the state. We call on the public to support IPAC to ensure that the importance well meaning Nigerians places on the 2023 election is not truncated,” he said.