...to engage over 20,000 adhoc staff for elections

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Independent National Electoral Commission, Wednesday took delivery of  sensitive electoral materials from the Makurdi Branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for onward distribution to the 23 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of Benue state ahead of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The sensitive materials which compromised of ballots papers and results sheets for the elections were handed over to the Benue State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Prof. Sam Egwu by the Branch Controller of CBN, Mr. John Itaha.

The handover which was done in the presence of delegated political party agents who were on ground to also inspect the materials, had the markings of the 23 LGAs of the state.

Receiving the materials, the REC said, “the sensitive materials for the Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives elections have been in the custody of the CBN in the last few days.

“As it is required they are handing over these sensitive materials to INEC. I am happy that we have here present the leadership of 10 political parties including the leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC as well as the management team of INEC in Benue State. We are doing this publicly in order to showcase the transparency of the Commission.

“I have already signed all the relevant papers which accompanied these sensitive materials which means the official handover to us.”

The REC who explained that the Commission would start moving the materials to the various LGAs from Thursday stated that the Commission had already commenced the distribution of the configured BiVAS machines which would also be done with by Thursday.

Prof. Egwu said the Commission would be engaging over 20,000 ad-hoc staff for the smooth conduct of the coming polls in the state.

Also, the CBN Branch Controller who confirmed the handover of the materials to INEC, said, “we have handed over and it is now in their care for the successful conduct of Saturday’s election.”

One of the obsevers and acting State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Isaac Mffo who commended INEC and the CBN for transparently handling the materials expressed satisfaction with the process.

He commended INEC for the innovation of marking the ballot papers with names of the various LGAs saying “this will permanently eliminate the issue of wrongly moving materials meant for a LGA to another.”

On his part, the Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr. James Ornguga also expressed satisfaction with the handover process saying, “the materials are intact and we are pleased with the handover process.”