The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday suspended the electoral officer incharge of Jos North local government over the missing of ballot papers in 16 polling units.
Announcing the suspension in a statement signed by the Head of Department Electoral Operations, Isah Abah Idakwo, on behalf of the resident electoral commissioner, Oliver Agundu said the suspension is to enable INEC carry out investigation regarding the missing of ballot papers for the house of representatives in 16 polling units of the area.
The statement which did not mention the name of the electoral officer how ever said “the EO should hand over to Barr. Elekwa Onyemauche, the local government supervisor and two RA supervisors of Tudun Wada- Kabong and Naraguta B (EO shendam and EO Kanke local government areas respectively to coordinate and complete the remaining process”.
BusinessDay reported that as the re-run elections for Plateau North Senatorial district and Bassa/Jos North Federal constituency get under way on Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced plans to conduct fresh elections in 16 polling units.
According to a press statement signed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (INEC) for Plateau state, Dr Oliver Agundu and obtained by BusinessDay on Sunday morning indicated that the reschedule election will commenced today by 9: 30am
It said that the fresh election followed complaints of ballot paper shortages deployed to some polling units during the Saturday re-run.
The REC, stated that an investigation had been launched by the commission to unravel the cause of the ballot papers shortage in the affected polling units.
“In respect of the reports that were coming in from some poling units that there were shortages of ballot papers in respect of the Federal House of Representatives seat, we did a holistic appraisal of the situation and we have received a comprehensive report on all the poling units and they summed up to 16 of them in total.
“13 are in Tudun-Wada/Kabong Ward, and three are in Naraguta B ward all in Jos North LGA. So, we have decided that we cannot even take it for granted that this is a negligible number compared to over 900 polling units where the elections took place.”
The REC said to resolve the issues amicably, the commission had summoned a meeting of party stakeholders at the INEC headquarters to brief them on the situation.
As at the time of this report, the re-scheduled election was still going on in the said 16 polling units.
