The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Lagos State on Wednesday took delivery of sensitive materials for Saturday’s general elections from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos that the commission had begun distribution to the 20 local government areas of the state.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled to hold on Saturday.
Agbaje said: “We have taken delivery of the sensitive materials today. It started very well and the distribution to the 20 local government areas is still going on. We are in the last phase of the process of the elections.
“We have taken the ballot papers and the results sheet for the presidential, senatorial and the House of Representatives elections taking place on Saturday, Feb. 25.”
He said the exercise was witnessed by the Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, the Department of State Security, DSS, political party officials and observers (EU and ECOWAS) among others.
“We have invited every stakeholder to see the transparency that INEC has been talking about so that everybody can see that we are on the same page.
“With the movement of sensitive materials to local government areas, that is to show the nation that the commission is ready and that we are there to ensure that Feb. 25 is sacrosanct just like March 11 will also be. Nothing will stop INEC from going ahead on Saturday,” he said.
Agbaje also added: “We are also sending Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to various local governments areas; they are being loaded from here (INEC headquarters) and trucks are taking them to various local government areas.”
The commissioner said the BVAS had been fully configured and would be fully charged.
According to him, by the end of Wednesday, all the 20 LGAs in the state will have received their materials and by Thursday, everything LGAs will have been settled, followed by sorting on Registration Areas/Ward basis.
On Friday, according to him, the materials would be carried to various RAC (Registration Area Centres) where INEC officials would do the necessary sorting before moving them on Saturday morning to the various polling units.