Peaceful council polls excites Imoke on september 21, 2013 at 4:53 pm in news Gov. Liyel Imoke of Cross River on Saturday lauded the peaceful conduct of the Sept. 21 Local Government elections in the state.
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He gave the commendation in an interview. in Itigidi, Abi Local Government Area, shortly after casting his vote at the Government Primary School.
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"I feel very good that the elections are generally peaceful.
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"Reports that we are getting across the state is that the turn-out is good and the processes are very orderly and compliant to the rules and regulations.
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"We are very excited that we can have very peaceful local government elections in Cross River State; this is something that we have always insisted on through the years.
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"We have conducted elections as and when due. We have never had caretaker or appointed chairmen.
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"We only had elected chairmen in Cross River State since I became governor and even before that, so we are very excited that the process is well received and that people are responding.
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"We expect that our party, the PDP, will produce competent candidates who will get elected by the people and who will be well placed to continue from where their predecessors stopped by embarking on people-oriented programmes.
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On litigations and insinuations that the election may be cancelled because the APC is statute barred from contesting, he said there was no basis for such litigations.
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"I do not know the basis for the litigation, but the Electoral Act is very clear with regards to registration of parties.
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"The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) started the process before the merger of the parties.
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"In fact if I were in the political parties, I would have reconsidered the merger knowing very well that the law is very specific about the 90 days and about the elections being also 90 days; so there are two 90-day issues.
Peaceful conduct of elections in this country is what we want in Nigeria as from now on.
I support this!