From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Resident Electoral Commissioner in Plateau State, Dr. Tersoo Agundu, has said the commission is ready to conduct a free and fair re-run election on February 3, this year, as ordered by court for Plateau North senatorial district.
A three-man panel of Appeal Court justices had, on October 23, 2023 nullified the election of Simon Mwadkwon, senator representing Plateau north senatorial district in the National Assembly and ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in the district within 90 days. Mwadkwon was also the minority leader of the senate.
Chris Giwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gyang Zi of the Labour Party (LP) filed the appeal. They challenged the judgment of the Plateau State Election Petitions tribunal, which affirmed Mwadkwon’s election.
Agundu, who addressed newsmen in Jos on Friday, reaffirmed that the election would hold as scheduled, promising to conduct free and fair poll.
The REC said the election would be conducted in six local government areas of Plateau North, which are Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Jos East, Jos North, Jos South and Riyom. He added that the local government areas have 73 registration areas, 2,266 polling units, and 1,234,761 registered voters, out of which 1, 167,001 had collected their voter’s cards.
Agundu said that 11, 000 ad hoc personnel, excluding security personnel would be deployed for the election. He emphasised that only people with permanent voter cards (PVCs) would be allowed to participate and accreditation would be with the use of bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS).