Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kebbi
state, has urged politicians to be wary of social media posts after
voting prior to the official declaration of result by the
commission.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Alhaji
Ahmad Mahmud, gave the advice during an interactive session with
stakeholders in Birnin Kebbi on Monday.
“Fake news is now a trend and can mar our efforts to ensure
free, fair and credible elections.
“We urge you to be wary of social media posted results before
official declaration.
“Only INEC Returning Officers at wards, local governments and
state levels have the statutory authority and power to declare the
results,” he said.
He said that 1,938,171 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were
received from INEC headquarters out of which 1,860,239 were
distributed, leaving 77,932 PVCs unclaimed.
“We have all the sensitive materials at CBN custody, so we have
no fear for the materials now.
“I collected the remaining sensitive materials that we had been
awaiting for and by Wed, Feb. 20, we are going to start
distributing them to remote areas and by Friday 22.
“We hope to finish the distribution in all the 21 local
government areas of the state.”
According to him, the state has 225 wards, 1,345 voting points
and 2,398 polling units in the 21 local government areas.
“We still maintain our arrangement as we had earlier told before
the postponement that, we are going to use 520 vehicles in the
transportation of ad hoc staff and election materials.
“This is part of our arrangement with the National Union of Road
Transport Workers (NURTW), Federal Road Service Corps (FRSC) as
well as security agencies on transportation.”
He assured that INEC was determined to ensure free, transparent
and fair elections but urged the people to continue to pray for
successful conduct of the exercise.
The REC said that special arrangements had also been made to
take care of physically challenged persons to enable them exercise
their franchise without hitches.
The stakeholders at the interactive session were security
agencies, representatives of political parties, traditional and
religious leaders as well as various NGOs and CSOs.
NAN