With less than six days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara State says it has received sensitive and non-sensitive material to ensure free, fair and credible polls on Saturday.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner , (REC) Mallam Garba Attahiru Madami stated this during a telephone chat with VON Correspondent in Ilorin.
According to him, all sensitive and nonsensitive materials have been received and kept safely at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office in the state capital.
According to him, all uncollected PVC’s will be returned to the CBN office while the various political parties and other stakeholders would be invited to the apex bank for the inspection of all the electoral materials including ballot papers and result sheets before they are distributed and transported to the various local government areas.
Madami disclosed that all representatives of the seventeen out of the eighteen registered political parties participating in the election in the state would sign another peace accord on Wednesday at the INEC headquarters in Ilorin for peace to reign before, during and after the election stressing that election should not be seen as a do or die affair or as a war.
He therefore urged the contestants, their supporters and all concerned stakeholders to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner and accept the outcome of the election in good faith promising that INEC will continue to maintain its neutral and unbiased position.
The REC announced that all adhoc staff to be engaged for the election have been trained and would be posted to their various places of assignments.
He added that the commission has entered into a strong and functional synergy with all security agencies in the state for peace to reign and for the protection of all electoral materials while the Navy and the Air force personels would be engaged in riverine areas particularly in some areas in Kwara North and other places that are not motorable or accessable.
In a related interview, the state INEC Head of Unit, Public Affairs and Protocol, AbdulKadir Bolaji Ibrahim explained further that the Commission has fulfilled 12 out of its 14 major schedule of activities for the 2023 elections.
The remaining two according to him, are ending of campaign which is 24 hours before election and the election proper.
He expressed confidence on the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) to be used on the election day, saying that the Commission recorded huge success during the mock accreditation exercise held recently in the state using the the electronic device as all the machines functioned perfectly well.
Ibrahim added that the Commission has concluded training for eleven thousand, five hundred and fourty eight presiding and assistant presiding officers mostly Corps members while the training of Collation Officers for the 16 Local Government areas of the state will be carried out soon after which they would be deployed to their areas of assignments and in all the one hundred and ninety three wards in the state.
Speaking along the same vein, the Commandant Operations, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDS )Zone ‘D’ Minna, Niger State, Ayinla Taiye Olowo posted to Kwara State to monitor the election , commended the security arrangements already put in place for Saturday’s election.
Commandant Olowo assured that no law abiding citizen will be harassed or molested throughout the election but warned against violation of the electoral laws stressing that Nigeria is a giant nation in Africa and the citizens must uphold such enviable position by allowing their votes to count.
He appealed to parents and guadiance to caution their children and wards against misbehaving and urged the political class to shun campaigns of calumny so as not to overheat the polity but rather discuss issues that will be of benefit to the electorate.
According to him, some flash points have been identified and mapped out by his monitoring team which would be probably manned before and on the day of election as all operational methods have been put in place.
Olowo, however, enjoined the Federal Government and authorities of the CBN to look into the Naira swap problem which the citizens are currently battling with before the election so as to douce unnecessary tension.
N.O
