INEC pledges credible supplementary polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is determined to conduct transparent, fair, equitable, just and conclusive election in the Saturday Supplementary elections.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, gave the assurance in an interview with our correspondent on Friday in Abuja

Okoye said that INEC situation room would be activated and the commission chairman would be presiding.

“The commission is ready for the conduct of the supplementary elections. The commission has deployed all sensitive materials to all the constituencies where supplementary has been indicated.

“Three National Commissioners are in Kebbi for the governorship supplementary. We also have one Senatorial Election, two Federal constituency election and eight State Assembly elections in Kebbi.

“The commission deployed two national commissioners to Adamawa, one to Sokoto state and one to Rivers .

“We have deployed additional directing staff and other categories of staff from contiguous states to states where we have governorship and senatorial elections,” Okoye said.

He said that INEC was also deploying most of its staff as supervisory presiding officers and registration area collation officers.

“Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be fully deployed for the election. We have reconfigured the BVAS for optimum performance.”

Okoye said that INEC resident electoral commissioners had held stakeholder engagements with political parties and civil society groups.

He added that INEC had received assurances from security agencies of adequate cover and protection for voters, election duty staff and other stakeholders during the election.

He advised political actors participating in the Saturday supplementary elections to conduct themselves in a manner befitting of Nigeria electoral process.

“We must continue to deepen our democracy and continue to provide the electoral ambience conducive for free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections.

“We will conclude pending elections tomorrow and wait for court ordered rerun elections if any,” Okoye said.