The former Edo State governor said this during Wednesday’s
plenary in the Senate.

He added that in dealing with technology in elections,
Nigeria must be cautious of hackers.

He also stated that he does not support conducting the
election of the President, the National Assembly, and Governors on the same day.

“I don’t know if Mr. President will remember. I’m not sure
I’m entitled to call the President as a witness, but just to draw your
attention to what I said when we were both governors, first, the issue we must
work hard to eliminate in our electoral process is violence. We can’t have an
election that seems to be a war where young men and not so young, carry AK-47
either to chase away opponents or even to chase away the young men and women
who are presiding over election or to take over coalition centers

On that occasion as a sitting governor, I believe Governor
Dickson was also at that meeting, I remember when I finished, I said, AK-47 is
not like buying akara on the street[only big men can buy them]. I remember the
former governor Amaechi asking me whether I was accusing the governors.

“I think I said something close to ‘yes’ because if you ask
the security agencies, they will tell you that after every election, violent
crimes increase because the politicians who procured weapons for children who
are hungry and pay them a little fee, once the election is over, they are not
able to retrieve the weapons, and the weapon are then deployed by these people
for violence.

“You can see a strong correlation between the level of
criminality, robbery, etc, immediately after the election, because these people
have been abandoned since the results have been given, somebody said, I should
not accuse governors.

“I’m not accusing governors now. I’m just recalling what I
said before and when I listen to all those who spoke here, everybody spoke in
unison, I haven’t heard anyone who says he doesn’t want a transparent election.

“If we all do, not from our lips but from our heart, and we
decide to remove violence and convince ourselves that the Nigerian people
deserve to hire and fire without fear of favor on Election Day, at least after
every four years, correct law. We will have free, fair, transparent elections.

“The beauty of democracy is not the fact that you find
yourself occupying an important elective office.

“It is the feeling in your heart that people actually in
their free will find you worthy to be their voice and to entrust our collective
patrimony in your hands to manage to deliver the greatest good to the greatest
number.

“That for me is the beauty. If you achieve it by the game of
body, by two rigging or other manipulation, deep in your heart, you know that
you are not a happy person.

“Therefore I wish to say the following. First, we should
resolve each and every one of us and also collectively, that as elected
persons, we as senators, shall not directly or indirectly, secretly or openly
abet unemployed people and Armed them to disrupt elections if we form our
character, this problem is 90 percent solved.”