A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Dr Michael Ajilo, has said that the forthcoming elections in Ondo State will be free and fair just as he called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to consider the adoption of electronic voting system for subsequent elections in Nigeria.

Ajilo, who is the Chairman of MADE Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation domiciled in Ondo State, made the call while featuring on an interview programme on Channels TV monitored by Tribune Online.

He posited that total usage of electronic voting systems in elections will save the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a lot of stress in terms of logistics hitches.

Ajilo noted that “By adopting this innovation, it will automatically take away ballot boxes from the Polling Units and restore sanity in the Nigerian electoral processes as being experienced in developed countries of the world.”

He stated further that in the interim and due to the peculiarity of the Nigerian environment, the movement of electoral materials should be contracted to some reputable logistics companies in Nigeria with the intent of delivering the materials across the country ahead of the scheduled time appropriately.

According to him, part of the better ways to ease INEC from the humongous electoral challenges, states must be mandated to conduct their elections at different times by INEC in order to reduce allocated resources wastage, have more time for the process, have enough manpower and have adequate security personnel to monitor the elections.

Speaking on multiparty systems, Ajilo, suggested a few numbers of political parties so that Nigerians can have one or two strong opposition parties to rely on when the ruling party is no longer their choice and also to have them put the ruling party in check and on their toes at all times.

He equally stressed the need for political leaders to orientate, re-orientate and lead their followers on the paths of peace through their utterances in tandem with the usual Peace Accord they normally sign a few days before every election.

Meanwhile, he further disclosed that the possibility of diaspora voting may be negative for now since the political environment of Nigeria has not dictated so.

Making reference to the peaceful conduct of elections in Ondo and a few other states in Nigeria, the humane philanthropist is hopeful that the conduct of the Ondo State Governorship election on November 16th this year will be peaceful, free and fair if room is given for improvement by INEC in their elections conduct.