Kogi REC: We’re 90% ready for guber poll — over 900 backup BVAS machines available

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is 90 percent ready for the November 11 governorship election in Kogi state.

Speaking with NAN, Gabriel Longpet, the INEC resident electoral commissioner (REC), said the bimodal voters accreditation system (BVAS ) machines have been deployed to the 21 LGAs in the state in preparation for the election.

He added that the commission would ensure that all the 3,508 polling units get election materials on time.

“I can say we are 90 percent prepared. If not for the fact that we are waiting for the sensitive materials such as the ballot papers and the result sheets, I would have told you we are 99.9 percent prepared,” he said.

The REC said the commission has recruited over 15,000 ad hoc staff to help it in the “smooth” conduct of the polls.

He added that each of polling unit would be manned by four ad hoc staff aside the security personnel that would be around to ensure peaceful conduct of the election.

“We shall deploy more staff and BVAS in densely populated polling units to complement those we are going to use,” he said.

“To be precise, we are going to use more than 900 back-up BVAS.

“This is because some polling units have more than 1,000 to 2,000 registered voters, and we have to split the number by creating more voting points for easy voting.

“This become imperative as we don’t want to give room for anything that will delay the process.

“As soon as there is a report of any BVAS failure or challenge, we shall provide another one and configure it to that polling unit for smooth continuation of voting.”

On security, the commissioner said identified flash points would be well taken care of to have a hitch free election.

“The security agencies have always given us the assurances. On our part as a commission, there is nothing we can do. We only rely on them, because we are not in control of the security,” he said.