Commission Finalizes Distribution Of Sensitive Materials In Cross River

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has finalized the distribution of sensitive voting materials to the eighteen local government areas of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.

The sensitive materials included the machines for Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, ballot papers for the presidential, senatorial and federal house of representatives as well as Form EC 8A, 8B, 8C AND 8D plus replacement copies of the forms.

While the BVAS machines were loaded as early as 8.30am local time from the headquarters of INEC in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, alongside other non-sensitive materials, the ballot papers for each of the local government areas where displayed at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Calabar branch late Thursday afternoon.

The members of the Interparty Advisory Council, IPAC led by the Chairman, Mr. Anthony Attah including chairmen of 12 political parties and their representatives and security operatives as well as a cross section of local, national and international observers were present at the two venues to witness the exercise.

Untampered

During brief interactions with the media, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Professor Gabriel Yomere said concerning the 3281 BVAS machines, “they have been charged to last for 48 hours. We do not envisage to have any problem with power. The machines have been configured according to the polling units.”

At the CBN, the REC said that the essence of inviting stakeholders to witness the distribution exercise was in the “spirit of transparency and credibility. We need Nigerians especially all the parties involved that the materials are intact just as they were sent to us and we are sending these to the local governments.

“You can see that the trucks are here and ready to be loaded. We have enough security to escort each of these trucks to their various destinations. I reiterate here in the presence of these stakeholders that no result sheets has been tampered with, neither the forms. We will stop at nothing to ensure we conduct free, fair and credible election,” Yomere stated.

Security

Also speaking, Mr. Kabiru Ibrahim, the representative of the newly deployed Police Commissioner to take charge of election security, Mr. Aliyu Garba assured of adequate security throughout the duration of the entire exercise.

Ibrahim explained, “security agents will closely monitor the trucks and escort same to the respective polling units. We have taken into consideration all the dark spots and flash points in the state and have taken measures to deploy more personnel those areas.”

Continuing he said, “the security agents will not tolerate any malpractice or violence. In fact, to ensure that security agents do not interfere with the process, we will be deploying what we call ‘security monitoring teams’ and their work would be to arrest any security personnel involved in malpractice of any kind.”

He urged eligible voters to exercise their franchise peacefully, while those involved in the process should have authentic means of identification and tags to avoid constituting nuisance.

In Cross River, 11 political parties would be contesting for the governorship seat, while 28 candidates would be slugging it out for the 3 senatorial seats and 69 contestants would battle for 7 House of Representatives positions.

187 candidates from 12 political parties would scramble for the 25 seats of the Cross River State House of Assembly come March 11, 2023.

Confidence Okwuchi