IReV now functional, we will use it for Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi elections- INEC Chair
Comment
Ahead of the November 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has assured that the commission’s Result Viewing Portal, IReV is duly functional and would be used during the elections.
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Yakubu who stated this while speaking with newsmen at Ward 009, LEA School, Ganaja Village, Ajaokuta Local Government Area in Kogi State where he had gone to monitor the states’ mock accreditation exercise said that results for the governorship election in the three states will be uploaded on its’ portal, IReV.
Yakubu stated that the commission would not be found wanting for any irregularities as he assured that INEC would diligently follow the laws for accreditation and results collation during the state’s elections.
He also noted that efforts are currently under way by the commission in collaboration with security agencies to ensure that the safety of life and properties are guaranteed during the elections.
He said, “the method is as provided by law, electronic accreditation, electronic upload of results on the IREV portal and that is why we are doing this mock.
“So, please disregard whatever was reported about what the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was said to have said in Bayelsa.
“That’s going to be the procedure and it’s for that reason that I will advise you also for those who are registered on the IREV portal.
“That in the next two hours or so, go to the IREV portal and you will see the result of the mock accreditation from all three states.
“We are uploading, as we have done in previous elections,” Yakubu said.
“Next week Friday there is going to be a high-level meeting in Abuja co-chair by myself and the National Security Adviser in which all the security chiefs will be present, no representation to discuss the issue of security.
“For the three states elections, we are on top of the situation in terms of security arrangement and security deployment,” he said.
Meanwhile the INEC chair revealed that the commission already has modalities in place to help control the crowd at PU 009 in Ganaja as it is the largest and most densely populated in Nigeria PU with 13,000 registered voters.
Yakubu said that on the election day, voter register would be broken down alphabetically by the voter surnames to fast-track the voting process adding that, INEC was taking proactive measures to give voters a pleasant voting experience on Election Day.
He said, “after the election, the Commission will redistribute the voters to other approximate locations.
“But for now, we’ll have to conduct the elections with the number of registered voters in this polling unit.
“For that reason, we are deploying a minimum of eight BVAS machines on election day, Saturday, November 11 for easy accreditation of voters,” he said.
Speaking further, Yakubu who identified flooding as one of the challenges of the PU said that INEC was already making arrangement to use Family Support Programme (FSP) Nursery, Primary and UBE JSS, Gadumo-Lokoja as alternative supper RAC in case there was flood during the election.
“If there is flooding before the election, we’ll pull the ad hoc staff out of here and move them at first light on Saturday to this polling unit.
“But our preference will be to use this place as a super-RAC where we will camp the ad hoc staff overnight,” he said.
He thereafter met with members of staff of the commission at INEC State headquarters in Lokoja where he stated that his visit was to ask the staff questions on their preparations, what had been done and what were still outstanding.
Yakubu said that the purpose was to assess the readiness of the state for the November 11 election, adding that similar visit would be undertaking to Imo and Bayelsa states.
“So far, so good on the part of the commission, we have delivered over non sensitive materials for the election.
“Now the challenge is for you at the state level to begin to organise the materials and patch them.
“Each polling unit has a pack that is going to be carried by the presiding officer supported by the system presiding officer.
“I saw in Koton-Karfi that some of the materials have already been batched into the bags. I hope that all the local government areas will the same all over,” Yakubu said.
On his part, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Kogi, Dr Gabriel Longpet, said that all nonsensitive materials for the election had been received and sent to the LGAs.
“We have received 60 per cent of our budget and have also started disbursing to LGAs to start those activities that need to be undertaken.
“We would like to request the Central Bank to be directed to give us our cash directly to avoid delays and problems with transportation and RAC activation,” he said.
Longpet said that details of areas of possible flash points in the state had been identified and would be the basis of security deployment.
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