Very sensitive electoral materials for the Ekiti State gubernatorial may be deposited elsewhere than the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for safekeeping, the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said on Saturday.
Yakubu disclosed this at a meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSO) on its preparations for the coming off-season election in Ekiti State.
He said to further guarantee the neutrality of the agency and the determination of the agency to conduct a free, fair, and transparent election.
He said INEC is considering stopping the usage of the CBN vaults across the country to warehouse its sensitive electoral materials.
Recall that the INEC chairman had told Nigerians that the agency may stop the use of CBN following the dabbling into political terrain by the CBN Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele’s friends and associates had obtained the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential form and had been in the eye of the storm when he failed to resign his exalted office to prosecute his presidential ambition.
After a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Emefiele had thrown a jibe at Nigerians who he said could go ahead and develop heart attack, while he is catching fun.
To establish INEC’s total neutrality in the development, the INEC Chairman had assured Nigerians that INEC would loo for other ways of safe keeping all sensitive electoral materials which were usually warehoused by CBN, beginning with the Ekiti governorship elections.
He said with the CBN Governor’s involvement in politics, the safety and integrity of all electoral materials can no longer be guaranteed.
Members of the CSOs had commended the INEC Chairman for all efforts aimed at ensuring the integrity of all electoral materials for the Ekiti election and all other subsequent elections ahead of the agency this year and especially the general election coming up next year.