INEC distributes election materials in Kogi  

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has distributed sensitive materials that would be used in Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi state.

A correspondent of NAN who was at the INEC office in Lokoja on Thursday to witness the distribution observed that the materials were escorted out to various destinations amid tight security.

It was also noticed that the distribution of the materials was done in the presence of the representatives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and other parties contesting the election.

Halilu Pai, the state resident electoral commissioner, who supervised the exercise, said the materials included ballot papers and result sheets.

Pai said the materials would be taken to the INEC offices in the 21 local government areas of the state from where they would later be shared among the 239 wards.

He added that INEC was ready and committed to conduct a free, fair, credible and acceptable election and urged political parties, security agents and other stakeholders to play their roles according to the rules.

Pai also gave assurances that the fuel scarcity currently being experienced in the state would not have any negative impact on the process and outcome of the election.

He said the commission had made arrangements with some filling stations that would sell fuel to all vehicles on election duty, and that the stations had been prevailed upon to operate on 24-hour basis beginning from Friday.

Meanwhile the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) says it will deploy 325 citizen-observers for the election.

Ibrahim Zikirullahi, chairman of TMG, told reporters in Lokoja that the observers would comprise of 300 stationary and 25 roving ones.

He said they had been carefully selected across the 21 local governments in the state.

Zikirullahi said the observers would be deployed to 300 randomly selected polling units out of the 2, 548 in the state.

He also said that the TMG, an independent and non-partisan organization, is a coalition of 400-civil-society groups based in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to him, their duty is mainly to provide timely and accurate information on the conduct of voting and counting of the results of the election.

“TMG’s quick count is the only observation methodology that can independently verify the official results of the governorship election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission,” he said.

The police have restricted movement between 6am and 6pm on Saturday.