Countdown to the Saturday rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has differed with President Muhammadu Buhari on the shoot at sight order for electoral offenders during the rescheduled elections.
Buhari addressing the expanded National Caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC on Monday ordered security operatives to attached to polling units to shoot ballot box snatchers on sight.
According to the President, “ I do not expect anybody to make any disturbance, I have briefed the law enforcement agencies and the military to identify hotspots, flashpoints, they should be prepared to move.
“They too would have made their own arrangement as possible and resources provided as much as the country can afford it. And anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb it (elections), maybe that would be the last unlawful action he would take. I have directed the police and the military to be ruthless.
“I have given military and police order to be ruthless. I am not afraid l am have moved around the country and have enough people to vote for me”.
But Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman while briefing journalists Tuesday disagreed that, “the position of the Commission is that all violators of Electoral Act should be punished according to the provisions of the Electoral Act”.
Yakubu noted that to avoid the mistake of delay in the movement of sensitive electoral materials that led to the shifting of last Saturday’s polls, the Commission, “has already started moving some of the critical materials to the states”.
“Only two days ago we delivered all the ballot papers for the north central geopolitical zone. As we speak they are moving materials for us the northwest geopolitical zone. We are also moving materials for state House of Assembly elections for South West geopolitical zone either tonight or tomorrow”.
While disclosing that INEC will publish the details of permanent voter’s cards, PVCs collection tomorrow, he said, “we will tidy up all the information today, tomorrow everything will be on the Commission website. The total number of people registered, the total number of PVCs collected, and the break down of the number of PVCs collected”.
On the preparedness of INEC for the rescheduled elections, Yakubu said, “by 4 pm yesterday, all issues relating to the delivery of the materials were identified and virtually addressed. Ballot papers, result sheets and a host of non-sensitive materials are now in location across the 37 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Our State offices commenced the process of inviting stakeholders to the Central Bank of Nigeria to examine the retrieved materials deployed last week and to witness the batching of materials according to Local Government Areas (LGAs). This is ongoing at the moment and is expected to be completed today Tuesday 19’’1 February 2019.
“The movement of materials to LGAs for batching according to Wards and Polling Units shall take place on Wednesday 20” and Thursday, 21st February 2019. All Registration Area Centres (RACs) are to be activated by 9.00am on Friday 22nd, February 2019.
“You would recall that in my address to stakeholders. I mentioned that we intended to reschedule the elections for just 24 hours to enable us to deliver the final batch of sensitive materials for the elections. However, our ICT team notified us that it would require more time to reconfigure the Smart Card Readers in time for the elections.
“Let me explain why. The Smart Card Readers (SCRs) are configured to only open for use at 8 am on election day and to automatically shut down by 10 pm. This is designed to forestall any illegal use of the SCRs before the appointed time of elections.
“There are roughly 180,000 SCRs to be deployed for the elections and the ICT team said that they would require 5-6 days to complete the configuration. I am glad to say that as at today. about 98% of the SCRs have been reconfigured and we are confident that by tomorrow all would be ready. which is a day earlier’ than scheduled.
“Preparations for Governorship, State Assembly and FCT Area Council elections are well underway. Already, the sensitive materials for the elections have started arriving at various locations for onward movement to various Central Bank branches across the country. Indeed, some of these materials arriving through our airports have been erroneously construed by some people as materials for the elections holding this weekend.
“I want to reassure you all that all materials for the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections next Saturday are already in the States ready for deployment to LGAs, Ward and Polling Units. We have learnt a lesson from the preparations for the elections holding this weekend. For this reason, we shall start the movement of materials for the next elections early to ensure that nothing disrupts our process.
“While we fully understand the disappointment and even anger that followed that rescheduling of the elections on l6th February, I wish to appeal to stakeholders to be more dispassionate and circumspect in their comments in order not to overheat the polity.
“The Commission is focusing on the elections to be held on 23rd February and 9’h March 2019 to ensure that they are free, fair and credible. We urge all Nigerians to participate fully in the elections, notwithstanding the disappointment of caused by the rescheduling of dates”.
James Kwen, Abuja
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