- The REC called on the electorate to come out and vote for candidates of their choice.
- He also advised them to be orderly, abide by the rules and regulations, and avoid doing anything to disrupt the peace at the polling units or collation centres.
In advance of the byelection and rerun for the Fika/Fune Federal Constituency and the Yobe East Senatorial seat scheduled for this Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, has started distributing sensitive materials around Yobe State’s eight local government areas.
The five political parties that were running for office as well as other important figures in the election process requested that this be done.
Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Yobe, spoke to reporters on Thursday during the materials’ distribution at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) office in Damaturu. He said that the distribution and inspection of the sensitive materials adhered to the commission’s policy of transparency.
“What we are about to do now is to distribute these sensitive materials to the various electoral officers for further distribution to the wards and polling units across the eight local government areas of the state, Seven for bye election and one for re-run.
“As they leave here with the materials, which are intact, they will go to their offices under full security escort by the military, police and other agencies.
“This is to ensure that the materials arrive safely for further distribution to the wards and polling units,” he said.
He advised electorates in these areas to come out and exercise their franchise, stressing that it must be in an orderly manner.
It was gathered that for Yobe East Senatorial District the bye-election will be held in seven local government areas, namely: Damaturu, Gujba, Gulani, Tarmuwa, Bursari, Geidam and Yunusari.
While a re-run will be conducted in a unit in Shoye Garin Abba Registration Area 001, Balde Primary School of Fika Local Government Area under Fika/Fune Federal Constituency.
Already, the commission has earmarked a total of 4,232 adhoc staff for deployment and 1,339 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines.