Over 1. 8 Million to Vote in Kogi Stat Off-Cycle Election on Saturday

Over 1.8 million voters will vote in the Saturday off-cycle election in Kogi state North Central Nigeria.

The Kogi state Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC,  Dr. Hale Gabriel Lonpet made the disclosure at Press Conference on Friday, in Lokoja, the state capital on the level of preparedness for the election.

He said the figures are for those who collected their permanent Voters Card while registration exercises were on.

“In less than 24 hours, 1.883.160 Nigerians who collected their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) are expected to vote in the off-cycle Governorship elections in Kogi State,”  he said.

He called on INEC  officials (both regular and ad-hoc) to demonstrate the highest level of patriotism and professionalism in the course of the election.

He said  INEC was not a political party as all sensitive and non sensitive materials, especially the BVAS, have been distributed considering first Local governments that are further away from the state INEC Headquarter.

“Our responsibility is to safeguard the process and ensure a level playing field for all political parties and candidates. The choice of who becomes the Governor Kogi State is entirely in the hands of voters.

“We have delivered all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the elections.

He said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) have been configured for deployment to Polling Units as the only means of voter verification and fingerprint/facial biometric authentication of voters.

“Polling Unit results will be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IRe) portal.

Extra Seven BVAS have been deployed to Ganaja primary an area with over 13,000 voters who refused to migrate to ensure that exercise is carried on time,” said the REC.

According g to him, all election duty officials have been trained, arrangements have been made for land and maritime transportation to enable commencement of voting on schedule.

“In spite of the extremely difficult terrain and physical infrastructure in some locations, we are determined to ensure that our officials are there waiting for voters rather than the voters waiting for our arrival.

“Special communication gadgets have been deployed to areas with network challenges to ensure seamless transmission of results, especially, Kupa in Kakanda area, some parts of Ajeokuta among others,”  assured the Commissioner.

He said for the success of the off-cycle elections, the Commission has deployed two (2) National Commissioners, nine (9) Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and Administrative Secretaries (ASs) as well as additional staff from different States to each of the three States to support the process.

“They are deployed across the senatorial zones in the States. Election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. As with every election, lessons have been learnt from recent elections,” he said.

He emphasized that INEC is ready to deliver a fair and credible but cannot do it alone as such the cooperation of all stakeholders is important, especially security operatives.

“We will continue to ensure free, fair and credible and inclusive elections but INEC cannot do it alone. We have received assurances from the security agencies that the environment will be secure for electoral activities and all participants: voters, electoral officials, accredited observers, the media and polling/collation agents. 

He said that Political parties and candidates have signed the peace accord under the auspices of the National Peace Committee (NPC).

“Let us maintain the peace and play our roles conscientiously. By doing so, we shall continue to consolidate our democracy,” he concluded.

Kogi state has 21 local government areas and the election will take place simultaneously.

Confidence Okwuchi