The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has distributed sensitive election materials for Saturday’s by-election to the three local government Registration Area Centres in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.
The Commission led by the National Commissioner supervising Cross River State, Mr Festus Okoye; the Resident Electoral Commissioners of Oyo, Edo and Anambra States, including the host REC, Dr Cyril Omorogbe, received the materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Mr Okoye explained to representatives of the political parties taking part in the Ogoja-Yala Federal and Akpabuyo State constituencies’ by-election the different colours of sensitive materials received through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Calabar branch.
He said, “yesterday, being Thursday, we came here with the representatives of the political parties and civil society groups to inspect the materials as it is deposited with the Central Bank.
“This morning, we are moving these materials. But, we have three Resident Electoral Commissioners here—for Oyo state, Enugu and Edo state. The national commissioner explained that each of them will take and supervise one of the local governments,” the national commissioner explained.
According to him, each of the RECs would sign the results sheets of the local government they were designated to supervise.
He explained that the reason for this was to “guarantee the integrity of the result sheets. The implication is that any of the result sheets that do not bear the imprint is not a result sheet from us. So, we are going to make sure that we monitor the movement of our result sheets from the polling units up to the Registration Area Level and up to the local government level.”
Okoye stated that the commission was prepared to conduct a free, fair, transparent and rancour-free exercise in Cross River, noting, “we have done all that we call due diligence. We have produced all the materials needed for the by-election, and we have trained our staff and trained them well.”
On security, he said, “the security agencies are here to escort the materials. The political parties can follow these materials up to the last destination. We do not entertain any fears.”
Satisfactory process
Speaking to the State Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Bassey Mensah, expressed satisfaction with distributing sensitive materials to the three local government areas.
Mensah said, “I am overwhelmed by what I have seen. I have confidence that there is a tomorrow for us. This election involves three categories of persons—INEC, the security agents and the electorates. From what I have seen, the power has returned to the people, who will have a say.
“We are going to the field tomorrow. We have done our very best, and the people will decide tomorrow. But, I am very optimistic because we as a party have done well, and we expect nothing other than victory tomorrow,”
Similarly, the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Venatius Ikem, said, “we are satisfied with the distribution process. Everything is going smoothly. The materials were inspected yesterday, and this morning we have confirmed the materials, and the sharing is going on.
“I want to believe that everything would go as smoothly as this day that we will have a free and fair process. The problem does not start here; the problem starts when you move into the field. Let me hope that there will be no problem tomorrow.”
On his expectation about Saturday’s election, the PDP state chairman further hinted, “I expect that PDP will win. My concern is the process leading to that. Let me also hope that we will all be reasonable and we will conduct ourselves toward a free and fair process.”
