Kwara: INEC Reassures Electorate Of Flawless Gubernatorial/ State Assembly Elections

Date: 2023-03-13

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara state has assured the electorate that all flaws owing to several technical issues that emanated from the last presidential and National Assembly elections have been addressed, thus promising a peaceful, hitch-free, reliable and credible election during the rescheduled polls.

The Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC in Kwara state, Mallam Adamu Musa, gave this assurance during an interview with Voice of Nigeria’s correspondent in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, ahead of the forthcoming Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections rescheduled for Saturday, 18th March 2023.

Mallam Adamu Musa reiterated that the challenges faced during the last presidential and National Assembly elections have been addressed by the INEC officials, particularly its Information and Technology experts.

He assured the state of a perfect and functional system of both human interface and material devices.

According to him, the people of Kwara state could also expect good conduct from its personnel as well as its ad-hoc staff, who have been retrained on the handling of various electoral materials during the forthcoming gubernatorial election.

He said the late arrival of the electoral materials at some polling units during the February 25th presidential election, which led to voting until late at night – one of the major complaints by the voters – has been addressed.

He disclosed that the sensitive electoral materials had since been at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ilorin office, for safe keeping and batched to be transported from one local government area to another.

Furthermore, all the transporters assigned to convey the electoral materials to the sixteen local government areas of the state have been paid for their services, hence there should be no reason for a delay in delivery or any complaint.

He also stated that necessary measures such as safety of the INEC Adhoc staff and proper monitoring of the sensitive materials have been ensured while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines have been reconfigured. He also promised that the safety of the electorate would be further guaranteed.

According to him, most of the adhoc staff used for the last election have been paid their allowances except those that have challenges with either their bank accounts or other technical issues which are also being addressed.

Musa warned that no INEC personnel, security agencies, party agents, the media or any other person have the right by law to assist any electorate to cast his or her vote except a member of the family of such electorate as requested by the voter.

Musa again warned that results of any polling unit where there are cases of overvote would be declared null and void and, therefore, enjoined all party agents and stakeholders to be vigilant throughout the period of voting and counting of the results to avoid any act of violation of the electoral process.

In a related interview, the Senior Engineer in the Information and Communication Technology ( ICT) Department of the commission at the state office of the Commission, Obalowu Olayinka, who disclosed that the INEC has fully carried out smooth running of the electoral process, assured that all challenges faced in the last election had been resolved in terms of unavailability of ink, ink pad for fingerprints, late arrival of electoral materials and conveying of the INEC adhoc staff.

He, however, advised voters, most especially the elderly and the physically challenged among them, to come along with a trusted person to assist them to vote for parties of their choice should there be any challenge(s).

The INEC Information Technology expert ruled out fears that the accreditation data on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices would be tampered with or lost during the reconfiguration of the tech machine, assuring that all relevant information would remain valid and intact, while cases of hacking had been seriously tackled in case of any attempt by hackers.

Meanwhile, the National Electoral Commisssioner representing Kwara, Kogi and Niger states, Professor Sani Muhammed Adam, has arrived in Ilorin on a courtesy visit to the state INEC headquarters.

He is on an assessment tour of the facilities against Saturday’s election.

Professor Adam who was recieved by the state administrative officer of the commisssion, Mr Julius Yagba, will be meeting with the management staff and the sixteen electoral officers of the commission.

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