Elections: Plateau INEC retrains ad-hoc staff


The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Plateau state will today retain its ad-hoc staff on smart card readers ahead of Saturday’s Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

According to the Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Osaretin Imahiyereobo, those specifically being retrained are the Presiding officers (PO).

He stated this at a town hall meeting on voter education, held at KTFM, organized by the National Orientation Agency (NOA.)

He said the lessons learnt from the last election, where presiding offers had difficulties operating card readers made the commission to seriously consider retraining its ad-hoc staff on the usage of the card readers.

According to Osaretin, INEC is determined to impose section 47 of its guidelines that stipulates that any election where card reader is not used, such election stands cancelled.

“We will use the card reader. We have re-configured all the card readers to be used in Plateau state for the governorship election,” he said.

He said no manual accreditation would be accepted, assuring that the INEC would remain independent, transparent, and unbiased.

The INEC official, who further cautioned against under age voting, encouraged political parties to take up their responsibility of educating the voters on how best to cast their votes.

The State Commissioner of Police, Isaac Akinmoyede, represented by Akeem Yusuf, reprimanded citizens to strictly adhere to rules of the election guidelines.

He said the police have no business with the process of the election but to provide security during the exercise stressing that: “only the INEC presiding officer determines what to do or not at the polling unit.”

The State Director of the National Orientation Agency, Mr Bulus Dabit, said the agency deemed it necessary to continue to partner media outfits and other organisations to educate the voters on how best to conduct themselves and vote properly.

“People should remember that election is not war, but is an opportunity to vote leaders that will lead the nation,” he said.

Representatives of some civil society organisations, the media, security agencies, religious and community leaders participated in the town hall meeting.

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