THE Resident Election Commissioner (REC), Dr. Tersoo Agundu, has embarked on the inspection of Sensitive Election Materials for the Saturday Governorship and Houses of Assembly for onward distribution to the seventeen (17) Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
The materials which were sent from the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Abuja, were stocked at the Jos office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where the Controller, Jos Office of CBN, Mrs. Esther Tinat presented the signed and sealed Sensitive Materials Wednesday.
Presenting the materials, the CBN Controller, said, “We are all here to receive these items that were delivered to us signed and sealed last week which both are the Governorship and the State of House of Assembly Ballot Papers and Result Sheets for the 17 Local Government Areas of the state. On this note, I handover the materials to the INEC Commissioner signed and sealed”.
At hand to receive the materials were the Plateau State Resident Electoral Commissioner, in company of the state Police Commissioner Bartholomew Onyeka, Elections Monitoring, Dauda Mammam and the Commander of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) as well as representatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) amidst tied security.
He said, “On behalf of our Chairman, Professor Mamood Yahubu and the staff of the commission on the Plateau, I want to welcome you specially to this very important exercise which we hope is the final stage of electioneering period. For us here in Plateau State like other states of the federation, this is the last lap of election like we did the other time.
“After the assessment, we have put in place arrangement ready to deploy them to our 17 Local Government Areas to signal the commencement of electioneering process in respect of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections. What we are going to inspect are basically the ballot papers and the Result Sheets for the Governorship and the Houses of Assembly elections.
“We expect that all of them should be the right quantity because we have not seen them just like you. This is the first time we will have the opportunity to unbundle and open them to see exactly the content. We hope that all the critical stakeholders, security agencies, the political stakeholders and the media as well as observers will co-operate with us for us not t waste time here. We hope that this exercise will be smooth”, he prayed.
The team led by the INEC REC unveiled the sensitive materials and were identified according to the local government areas with some having two Houses Assembly representatives each apart from Barkin-Ladi, Bokkos, Jos-East, Jos-South, Kanke, Langtang-South, Mikang, Riyom, Shendam and Wase Constituencies which have one each.
However, the REC disclosed that some of the polling units that still have issues in the Central Zone of the state that obstructed the smooth declaration of the Senatorial election and have opted for re-run election may not hold the same day with the Governorship and Houses of Assembly Elections and that, the date would be communicated soon.
