Kaduna: INEC Flags Off Distribution Of Sensitive Materials, Assures Of Credible Elections

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: The Independent National Electoral Commission, ( INEC) Kaduna, has distributed sensitive election materials to the 23 local government areas (LGAs) of the state for the 25th February, presidential and national assembly  elections.

The flag -off ceremony held at the Central Bank Of Nigeria, (CBN) Kaduna on Wednesday, attracted political parties, observers and stakeholders among others.

Speaking the INEC Admin. Secretary, Kaduna state, Muhammad Auwal Mashi, said” What we are doing here in the CBN branch in Kaduna is the distribution of sensitive materials, by sensitive materials, I am referring to the ballots papers and ECA forms for the three elections that will be held on the 25th February, the presidential, senatorial and house representives election,

“as I am talking to you now all our 23 local government electoral officers have been called from the field and they are here to Flag off the distribution of materials “

He pointed out that unlike the previous elections, where there were over 90 political parties ” this time around there are only 18 political parties and even the 18, it’s only in the presidential election, we have all the political parties contesting, so if you look the quantity of materials we are going to distribute is not as huge as in 2019, so hopefullly, it will not take us very long to distribute”

 According to him, the next thing to do is transportation of  the election materials to all the 23 local governments, “we just had our meeting on Inter- agency consultative committee on election security and we made it known to them that we are taking the materials to the local government areas and the plan is for the security agencies to provide us with security, for men and materials to be taken to all the 23 local government areas of the state including those areas we have security challenges”

 He said, inrespect of the figures of materials distributed, “Kaduna state has 4.3million registered voters, so we should expect to have a similar number, because we do not wish to disenfranchise any anybody, every one that has been registered in Kaduna is going to cast their ballot on election day on 25th of febuary”

He further said on logistics preparedness, the commission has received part of the funds for the elections ” the monies will be given in four trenches” adding that Nigerians “should expect a very good election, we started making arrangements for the 2023 general elections immediately after the 2019 general elections, inbetween then and now, a lot has happened, for instance the electoral act has been amended, that has given us the leeway to to conduct election in the best possible way” he said. 

While assuring Nigerians of essence of introduction of the Biomadal Voter accreditation system( BVAS) “so I will like to use  this opportunity to assure the public of a very good election which has never been seen in the history of Nigeria”, assuring further of their adequate security preparedness for the elections.

He also dismissed fears that any local government be would not be covered due to network/service failure or landmass during the elections adding that, as it was seamless distributing the non-sensitive materials earlier, so it will be seamless, with time on their side, to distribute  the sensitive election materials across the 23 LGAs.

On his part, the Kaduna State PDP  returning officer, Comrade Danjuma Bello Samson, describing the distribution exercise ” I can say that so far so good, we have given INEC a pass mark on the distribution of the election material, adding however, that “whenever government or whoever wants to rig election it is not at the distribution stage but in other stages of the election, 

“so far so good, we can see INEC has done well and we will continue to monitor closely to ensure that this election is the most free and fairest ever conducted in this country, so that the outcome will not only be acceptable, but every body will be happy with it” he added.

Similarly, the Kaduna state Chairman of Labour Party, (LP) Hon Auwal Tafoki ” said from what I have seen, it seems INEC is very serious , it seemed to be prepared for the election, even the Ballot papers are here already; so we are going to give them a pass mark for the  preparation so far” he noted.

Also, the Kaduna State NNPP Chairman, Nuhu A. Audu, in his assessiment of the exercise, said,” why I am a bit worried is when documents like these are being brought for elections the serial numbers of such documents are usually accessed by all political parties,” adding that though the are arranged according to various local government areas, 

” but the contend and serial nuumbers of the ballots papers or document going to which local governments is what I am quering about” he stressed.When asked if he’s suspecting anything odd or made a compliant, ” they were aloof,” he claimed, adding however, that his concern is for more transparency in the process.