Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The Vice President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, has tasked Nigerian youths to champion the course of free, fair and credible elections during the general election.
He said youths have a responsibility of protecting their future.
Chief Okeke-Ogene who spoke in Awka, recently, expressed satisfaction that Nigerians are now more politically aware and ready to take ownership of the country by using their Permanent Voter’s Cards to enthrone people-oriented administration that will change the national narrative.
He urged the electorate to look beyond ethnicity and religion and vote according to their conscience. He also cautioned youths against being willing tools in the hands of self-seeking politicians who may want to recruit them as thugs during the elections while their own children are safe in foreign countries.
Chief Okeke Ogene commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for remaining consistent in the implementation of its schedule for the general election and urged it to ensure early and adequate deployment of personnel and logistics to various polling centres to avoid delays and hitches, while urging security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities to encourage mass participation in the exercise.
On the scarcity of the new naira notes, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Vice President called on commercial banks to avoid acts that would further subject Nigerians to economic hardship.
Similarly, a community leader, Chief Christopher Okpala, regretted that the allegation of hoarding of the new naira notes is sabotaging the implementation of the policy while a trader Mrs Chinwe Izunna said the scarcity of the new naira notes has brought down the tempo of socioeconomic activities in the country.
