Cross River Bye-elections: We are fully prepared for Feb 26 ― INEC

 

<<CLICK/TAP HERE>>

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday disclosed  that it was ready for the Feb. 26 Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency and Akpabuyo State Constituency by-elections in Cross River.

Speaking during the movement of sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria ,CBN , in Calabar to the Local Government Areas (LGAs) involved, National Commissioner of INEC, Mr Festus Okoye said the whole process has been hitch free.

Okoye stated that as at Thursday, Feb. 24, political parties and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) inspected the electoral materials deposited with the CBN and confirmed their authenticity.

According to him, the materials would be moved to the various LGAs where the by-elections would be taking place and three resident commissioners from Oyo, Edo and Enugu State would supervise each of the three LGAs.

His words :” Each of the resident commissioners will supervise one of the LGA and they are signing the result sheet for their specific LGA, this is because we want to guarantee the integrity of the result sheets.

“We are going to make sure that we monitor the movement of our result sheets from the polling units up to the registration areas and the LGA levels.

“We have no fears as we have done due diligence in the process and have trained the necessary manpower needed for the election.

“The security agencies are here to escort the materials, to the various venues for the by-elections and political parties, CSOs are free to follow these materials to the last destination, he said

Speaking further, Okoye said for Saturday’ by-elections, only people whose names were on the voter register during the 2019 general election would vote because they were yet to print  Permanent Voter Card (PVC) for new  registrants.

He maintained that the use of incident forms has been banned by INEC as they now  use the Bi- Modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVA) that is customised to each polling unit in the by-elections.

In his remarks, Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River, Venatius Ikem Esq. said that so far he was satisfied with the process after the inspection and confirmation of the materials.

He said he was hopeful  that the by-elections will  go smoothly to ensure a credible process while believing  that all participants are reasonable enough to conduct themselves properly.

On his part, Secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Cross River,  Mr Bassey Mensah said he was confident in the ability of INEC to conduct  free, fair and credible by-elections.

He said they have done their home work well and expect a positive outcome come Feb. 26.