GROUP SET TO MOBILISE WOMEN AND YOUTH IN ENUGU STATE TOWARDS 2023 ELECTION

The Patriots for Restoration of Integrity to Enugu State (PRIEST) Group has announced the formation of its Voter Education Unit in its bid to undertake a mass mobilization campaign to galvanise women and youths in the state to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in preparation for the 2023 Governorship election.In a statement signed by its convener, Jude Udekwe, the socio-political group said the key to successfully bring about the desired transformation and development of the state which all well-meaning citizens are currently clamouring for lies in the hands of the teeming women and youth population. 

The statement noted that with about 70 percent of the state’s population spread between the youth and women, majority of expected voters in the coming election fall in the youth and female categories, if they collect their PVCs and exercise their democratic right to vote.The group beckoned on women and youths in the state to recognize the power they have to bring about the socio-economic change they desire by using their votes to elect leaders that would truly serve them. 

Udekwe also called on Enugu indigenes home and abroad to support the growing efforts by patriots to bring an end to the culture of anointing and imposition of candidates by the ruling party, adding that the practice has brought nothing but under-development and the creation of a cult of unfeeling leadership that has little feeling for citizens’ welfare.“Enugu needs independent, focused and capable people to lead as governor and National Assembly representatives come 2023.

Only people who are truly chosen by and answerable to the masses of our people can understand and work in the collective interest of the state; not puppets that are lining up to be anointed,  selected or sponsored as proxies by the incumbents”, the statement averred. 

He therefore called on the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission and the ruling party to join his group to embark on qualitative voter sensitization campaign well ahead of the 2023 election to solve the problem of voter apathy in the state.Government and ENSIEC, he said, must show that they are committed to deepening the practice of real democracy in the state by getting the people to be more involved in the voting process.