From Olanrewaju Lawal Birnin Kebbi
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it will put an end to the recurring inconclusive and supplementary elections in Kebbi State.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity,Mr. Festus OKoye stated this in Birnin Kebbi,during the distribution of sensitive materials to the affected Polling units in 20 Local Government Areas of the state.
According to him,”we are conducting supplementary elections for Governorship,two federal constituency and eight house of assembly elections. We have finished distributing sensitive materials for the elections and these sensitive materials comprises of ballot papers, results sheets and BVAs for accreditation.
” We have also had a stakeholders engagement for political parties and Civil Societies. We have explained to them the redument of these election and places where these elections will take place. And they fully observed the sensitivity of these elections and the fact it is a supplementary elections that has been indicated.
“The REC has held series of engagement with security agencies and they have promised that they have the courage, resources to deploy personnel’s to all areas where these supplementary elections will take place. They have also put additional resources from neighbouring states around Kebbi State.
“On our part,the chairman of the Commission has deployed three national Commissioners to Kebbi State because of the number of elections we have in the state. Because of this,he deployed additional staff and so,most of our staff are going to serve as supervising officers,Acting as LG officer.
” We are not going to have supplementary -Supplementary elections. We are going to put an end to these elections right tomorrow and by Sunday,the people of Kebbi will know whom their Governor elect is. We are going to have conclusive election in Kebbi North Senatorial election and Conclusion into two Federal Constituency and 8 State Assembly election.
“In term of preparation,we are fully prepared for this election”, he said.
oKoye explained that the Commission have reconfigured the BVAs deployed for the election,stressed that,the Commission had no problem in accreditation and registration if voters.
According,. “BVAs have been reconfigured for these elections. We have never had problems with voters registration and accreditation. The BVAS are performing wonderful okay for the purposes of accreditation and registration. I have also spoken with ICT people and they have assured the Commission that they are ready for the uploading of result from polling units from tomorrow.
“We have supplementary elections, supplementary in Senatorial election,we have Supplementary in Federal Constituency and supplementary in 8 State Assembly election. For the purposes of Governorship election, the election will take place in 20 out of 21 LGAs, starting in 142 polling units. We are going to have election in Senatorial election and Federal Constituency and 8 State Assembly”.