By Emeka Ameafula
The 2022 annual celebration of Press Week by the members of the Rivers State Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigerian Union of Journalists rivers state Council, NUJ commenced on Monday 23rd of January to Sunday 29th of January, 2023. The Opening ceremony took place at the Conference Hall of Nigerian Bar Association NBA, Secretariat, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The Theme for the weeklong activities was “Media Vigilance Ahead of Peaceful 2023 Election in Rivers state”. The Special Guest of Honour Honourable Chris Finebone Commissioner For Information and Communication declared the ceremony open while Dr. Jossy Nkwocha former editor of Newswatch Magazine Lagos, now Head of Corporate Communications, Indorama Petrochemical & Fertilizer Group was the Chairman of the occasion. The Keynote Speaker was Resident electoral Commissioner Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem who was represented by Mr. Mark Usulo, Head of Department INEC Voter Education in Rivers state.
In his opening Speech, the Chairman of Correspondents’ Chapel NUJ Rivers States Council, Mr. Amaechi Okonkwo said that the inability of the association to have shifted the ceremony to 2023 was intentional so as to capture the relevance of the upcoming Generation election given the theme selected for the Press week. “The 2023 Correspondents’ Chapel Week was essentially planned for 2022 but for strategic reasons shifted to this time. And I think that the theme of the week rightly explains this reason,” he said.
He called on the electoral stakeholders which include Independent National electoral Commission-INEC, major political parties and their Governorship candidates to ensure that they maintain peace before, during and after the electoral period. Mr. Okonkwo stated that “Starting with INEC, our Keynote Speaker, through all the political parties and even the security Agencies, we will discuss some of the new introduction to electoral processes and the requirements for peaceful elections as it relates to individual groups and make commitment to respect and ensure we play our parts.”
The Keynote Speaker, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in his speech as presented by Mr. Mark Usulo said that for peaceful election in Rivers state INEC works with inter-security agencies who participate to ensure that the electoral processes remain peaceful as he assured that there will be no manipulation of the electoral process. He hinted that to avert Vote buying, INEC had contacted Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission-ICPC as he cited section 16 of the 2022 electoral Act as the Police has been briefed on Violation of section 16 of the Electoral Act. The announcement of Election results under duress he stated is no longer going to be business as usual as section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 has empowered INEC to scrutinize Results’ validity even after they were uploaded to the Electronic system.
Provisions have been made for people with disabilities including Albinos who have been provided to wear sunshades glasses. While he warned that use of cameras into the Polling Booths will not be tolerated where voting will be cast except around the Polling Units which is to showcase transparency of the electoral process.
The Resident Electoral commissioner said that voters are advised to get to the Voting centres early enough at least by 7:30am. On use of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS), he said it shall be used for confirmation of voters as finger prints of voters will be used to recognise and identify voters including facial recognition. But where facial recognition fails, the fingerprint shall bring out the voters’ details. BVAS according to REC, will snap FORM EC.8A. While electoral results will be displayed at the Polling Units where it will be uploaded instantly before being moved to Collation centres as the electoral results from the Polling Units will go viral before reaching the Collation Centres which eliminates any manipulation of electoral Results.
