Niger Electoral Body Says Poll’ll Hold In Banditry-prone Areas

Ahead of this weekend local government election, the chairman of  Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC), Engineer Mohammed Jibrin Imam has  assured of voting in banditry prone areas.

He also stated that the  distributions of both non sensitive and sensitive materials to the local government areas headquarters have been  concluded.

Engineer Imam disclosed this during pre election news conference and  final distribution of sensitive materials yesterday at the commission’s headquarters in Minna.

The chairman assisted by the permanent commissioner 1 in charge of operations and security, Barrister  Mohammed Liman said that already arrangements have been put in place to ensure that those faced by security challenges could vote.

He said the Commission has  put all  those issues into consideration and interfaced with the security agencies to ensure that all eligible voters were given opportunity to vote without hindrance.

Meanwhile he reiterated that the non sensitive and sensitive materials  have  been duly delivered to the 25 Local Government Electoral Officers (EOs) saying that the distribution of  sensitive materials were done  early to avoid unforseen logistics problems.

Imam reiterated that all procedures and  processes were strictly followed to avoid complaints  from the political parties, security agencies, observers and other stakeholders.

Meanwhile the commissioner of Police, Niger State Command CP Adamu Abdullahi Elleman, has ordered the deployment of three Deputy Commissioners of Police,  each for  the three senatorial districts to coordinate security  and ensure supervision in each area.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Wasiu Abiodun said, “This is in addition to massive deployment of Police personnel and operational assets including tactical teams such as 12pmf, 61pmf, Counter terrorism unit (CTU), EOD-CBRN, Special protection unit (SPU), Tactical support team (TST), Crack squad, and Anti-kidnapping unit, as well as other security agencies under Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to provide security coverage at all the 4,950 polling units and 274 wards of the 25 LGAs in the State.”