Some residents in Bauchi have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure conduct of free, fair and credible governorship and state assembly elections.

A cross section of the residents spoke in separate interviews on Thursday in Bauchi while reacting to the rescheduling of the state election by the Commission.

INEC had rescheduled governorship and state House of Assembly election earlier billed for March 11 to March 18 in compliance to the order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) over reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Abdullahi Buba, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said the rescheduling of the election was done in good faith.

“I commend INEC for respecting the order of the EPT with regards to the reconfiguration of BVAS for the conduct of state elections.

“This will avail the commission time to strategise for the election,” he said.

Also, Jaafar Dass, a lecturer with Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, said the postponement would enable INEC to address technical hitches and other challenges experienced in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.

“INEC has reasons to reschedule the election to avoid the hitches that happened during the Presidential election,” he said.

However, Musa Azare, a bigwig of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the development exposed the commission’s inability to make adequate preparations for the election.

“All these shouldn’t have arisen if the election was well planned for the last four years. How can configuration affect the date of the election?

“Let’s pray the rescheduling of the election is in good faith. I urged citizens to remain calm and wait for the new election date,” he said.

(NAN)