INEC distributes election materials for State Assembly Elections in Bayelsa

By Nathan Nwakamma

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Bayelsa, on Thursday distributed materials for the State Assembly Election, slated for March 18.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sensitive materials were sorted out and dispatched from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yenagoa, to the eight local government areas that make up the 24 constituencies in the state.

The distribution of materials was witnessed by Party agents and other stakeholders, but journalists were not allowed into the premises to witness first hand, the distribution process.

Speaking to journalists at the entrance gate of the CBN, Head of Voters Education and Publicity, INEC, in Bayelsa, Mr Wilfred Ifogah said, they were at the CBN to retrieve the sensitive materials which comprises result sheets and ballot papers for Bayelsa State House of Assembly Constituency elections.

He said for the local governments on Land, their materials will get to destination on Thursday, while that of Southern ijaw and Brass local government areas will be moved to INEC State office for onward movement on Friday morning to the local government headquarters.

“We know in Bayelsa we are not having governorship election, so right now we are moving the materials to the various local government headquarters so that the distribution can be early enough on Saturday.

“We have 24 Constituencies in Bayelsa. Each of the local governments has three except Southern Ijaw which has four and Kolokuma/Opokuma with two. Every necessary arrangement has been put in place. BVAS has been reconfigured for this particular Election. So far so good, we are good to go,” the official said.

Ifogah said to make the system smoother, a refresher training for the supervisor/presiding officers has been organised, saying hopefully that of collation officers will also take place.

“Just before today, we actually reviewed the election we had on Feb 25 and we looked at some of the lapses and what actually caused them. As we speak today, we are trying to break the chain. That is why we are moving our materials early enough so that they can go to the various local government headquarters, especially those on land.

“The result sheet of the State Assembly Election has a seal on it different from that of the Presidential election. This is to make it impossible for those who compromised during the Feb. 25 polls, to compromise this one, We designed a different seal for this particular ones.

One of the party agents, Mr Martins Bago, said they went inside and inspected the materials and from their findings, the materials for Sagbama LGA came in 30 cartoons.

“I want to believe that the materials are correct, we are moving them to Sagbama to separate them and send them to various wards.”

Also speaking, the Bayelsa chapter chairman of New Nigerian People’s Party, Mr Joel Tubonimi, said the materials were already packed before the party agents got to the CBN but that they insisted that all materials must be dropped down for proper inspection to ascertain that they are intact before moving them out.

He said they insisted because of what happened during the Presidential election where some result sheets were missing.

“So we insisted that we want to see everything and we were shown some of them. At Sagbama, our agents are also going to inspect the materials again to make sure nothing has happened in the course of transit.

“We hope that INEC will keep to their promise by giving us a free, fair and credible election on Saturday, because we were not satisfied with the Presidential election and others,” Tubonimi said.

(NAN)