INEC Finalises Preparations For Governorship, Assembly Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday put finishing touches to its preparations for Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections.

Some top officials of the commission in some states of the federation said the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines had been completed and would be deployed for the election.

The commission also took delivery of election materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and distributed them to the local government areas.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Nasarawa State, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, who disclosed this to journalists in Lafia, yesterday, said the BVAS machines had been successfully reconfigured and were ready for use during the poll.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had on March 8 granted INEC permission to reconfigure the BVAS machines used for the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.

A three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Joseph Ikyegh, granted permission to the electoral body to reconfigure the machines ahead of Saturday’s governorship and Houses of Assembly elections across the 36 states of the federation.

Ajidagba said the commission set to work on the machines after the court ruling to meet up the rescheduled poll, adding that “everything is set for the election”.

According to him, the commission’s personnel were deployed to its offices in all the 13 local government areas of the state to reconfigure the BVAS machines.

He also said the commission had commenced distribution of sensitive election materials to all the local government areas of the state ahead of the Saturday elections.

He said the materials which were conveyed from the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN office in Lafia include  ballot papers and  result sheets.

The distribution of the sensitive materials, he explained, was carried out in the presence of representatives of political parties, heads of security agencies and foreign observers.

INEC also promised the electorate in Ondo State that it would deploy the BVAS machines for Saturday’s House of Assembly election.

The acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Oyekola Oyelami, disclosed this yesterday while supervising the distribution of the sensitive and non-sensitive materials ahead of the election in Akure, the state capital.

Oyelami said the electronic machines (BVAS) had been re-configured after their usage for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.

While noting that it would be used for the March 18 State’s parliament election, he added that the materials being distributed by INEC at the premises of the CBN include ballot papers and results sheets.

He said the materials would be transported to all 18 LGAS of the State where they would be moved to the commission’s Registration Area Centres (RACs) before the polling units on Saturday.

He said, “By Thursday, these materials would be batched from there, while on Friday, the materials would arrive at the RAC centres where they would pass the night and as early as 6am on Saturday, they would be moved to the various polling units for the election.

“Aside from these, we would also be deploying the BVAS which has been reconfigured for the Saturday exercise. So, all of them are working perfectly now and would be used in the polling units,” the REC said.

While expressing INEC’s readiness for the election, Mr Oyelami said that out of the 18 political parties that registered in the country, only 17 fielded candidates to participate in the House of Assembly election in the state.

According to him, the leadership of the participating political parties had held a series of meetings with INEC in ensuring peaceful conduct of the election.

He said, “These political parties have already fielded their candidates that would participate in the Assembly election on Saturday and we have deployed our staff too for the timely arrival of material to the polling units.

“They (electorate) should come out en mass because these lawmakers are the ones that would be making laws on their behalf.”

The chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) in the state, Adesanya Olaoluwa, who witnessed the distribution of the materials, said the political parties are ready for the election.

Olaoluwa explained that the parties are optimistic that the electoral commission would deliver on its promises by ensuring the timely arrival of materials for the weekend exercise.

“We are aware that before Saturday that the election materials would have gotten to their various locations and destinations in preparation for the exercise. So, we are fully happy with what we saw and hopefully here today we are hoping INEC will surely deliver,” he said.

The IPAC chairman also reiterated that out of the registered 18 political parties in the country, only 17 would take part in the Saturday poll in the state.

“Truly, we have 17 political parties for the weekend election. Only Boot Party has no candidates for this exercise which would have made it 18”.

INEC in Kebbi State yesterday distributed sensitive materials (ballot papers & EC 8 forms) for the governorship and the state assembly elections to 21 electoral officers (EOs) of the state.

The distribution of the items was conducted by the resident electoral commissioner (REC) in the state, Barrister Bello Muhmud, at the premises of the state branch office of the CBN in Birnin Kebbi metropolis.

However, journalists who were officially invited by the INEC to cover the distribution of the items were barricaded from entering the premises by the officials of the CBN in the state but sources from the office of the director of voter education at INEC confirmed to journalists that the items were dispatched to all the 21 local government electoral officers of INEC yesterday at about 10 to 11 am.