Kaduna— THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Kaduna State, said yesterday, that it was set to conduct the rescheduled governorship and legislative elections in the state.

A large turn out of electorate at Ward 024 Abalti Barracks in Surulere during the elections on saturday Px Biodun Ogunleye

The commission had rescheduled the governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls in the Kaduna and Bauchi states from Tuesday to today.

Speaking on final preparations for the conduct of the elections in Kaduna, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state, Alhaji Halliru Tambuwal, said: “We are ready.”

Tambuwal confirmed that all arrangements for the polls had been concluded as the 23 local government areas had taken delivery of the non-sensitive election materials for onward transmission to the 255 polling units.

He listed ballot boxes, registers, indelible inks and writing materials as the non-sensitive electoral materials.

The REC added that security personnel would escort ballot papers, result sheets and other security documents to the INEC offices few hours before the commencement of polling today.

He said: “Everything is ready, including the deployment of electoral materials and personnel to our newly created Registration Area Centres (RACs) across the state,” adding that the regular INEC and ad-hoc staff had been deployed for the conduct of the elections.

Meanwhile, the INEC Administrative Secretary in the state, Alhaji Musa Adamu, has said the commission had engaged 18,938 ad-hoc personnel for the conduct of the polls.

Adamu said the ad-hoc staff were drawn from the NYSC Batch ‘A’, as well as senior staff and students of Federal Government tertiary institutions across the state.

He said the commission had trained a good number of senior students of Federal Government tertiary institutions across the state as a back-up, should the corps members decline to participate in the exercise.

He explained that 5,102 of those engaged would serve as presiding officers, with over 13,000 to serve as presiding clerks and assistant presiding officers.

He added that 510 of the number would serve as supervisory presiding officers and 255 as collation officers.
Adamu said that 54 of them would serve as returning officers, including 34 for the state House of Assembly election, 16 for the House of Representatives polls and three for the Senate elections.

He urged the electorate to repeat the high enthusiasm demonstrated in previous elections by turning out en masse to vote for leaders of their choice.

There are 23 local government areas with 255 electoral wards and 5,102 polling centres in the state.
The state has three senatorial districts, 16 federal constituencies and 34 state constituencies.

INEC registered more than 5.6 million voters in the state in the last nationwide voter registration.