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Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) in Kano State on Tuesday, threatened to suspend any election that manifests any form of threat to the safety of voters, its personnel and materials.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting ahead of the re-run elections which are coming up in a few days time in the state, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Kano State, Professor Riskuwa Arabu Shehu stressed that henceforth, they would not allow violence to mar the credibility of their elections.
He regretted that despite their huge investments, including the training of stakeholders to ensure violent-free elections exercise, the elections in the state were marred by violence.
He appealed to the stakeholders, especially the security agencies and the members of the political class, to play their parts in the process while reassuring that officials of INEC would implement the process in line with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act (As amended) and comply with the guidelines for the conduct of elections in Nigeria
INEC Commissioner, who assured that the commission would remain fair and neutral to all the political parties involved, indicated that they had received all the non-sensitive materials for the exercise in the affected nine local government areas, while saying that they were waiting for the arrival of the sensitive materials any moment from now.
“A total number of 3,466 ad hoc staff (POs) and (APOs), he stated were recruited from the National Youth Service Corps and from the Bayero University, Kano and trained to participate in the elections,” he stated
“The SPOs are going to be staff of the department while the coalition officers are going to be appointed by the national headquarter of INEC in due course.
Professor Shehu said that INEC would conduct elections in two federal constituencies, namely Kiru/Bebeji and Tudun/Wada constituencies, in two polling units in Kumbotso Federal Constituency and in 12 polling units in the rest of the affected constituencies.
He said that the re-run elections would hold in 60 registration areas across the affected local government areas, with a total of 414,923 registered voters in a total of 969 polling units.
