The Independent National Electoral Commission has commenced the distribution of sensitive materials to states of the federation ahead of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The states in which the electoral umpire has distributed the electoral materials include Lagos, Benue, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun.
In no fewer than nine states, the Commission stepped up preparations through the distribution of sensitive materials to local government areas.
Correspondingly, President Muhammadu Buhari in line with the preparation for the anticipated elections on Wednesday met with security chiefs and the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he said INEC had no excuse not to conduct successful polls.
In Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, the Resident National Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, at 10 am, met with security agencies and officials of the commission before the distribution of the materials to local government areas.
Salami, who spoke at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ado Ekiti branch, venue of the distribution, said early distribution of the materials “indicates that INEC has put everything in place and we are not leaving everything till the last minute.
“We are to assure Nigerians that we are fully ready for the elections and the materials are ready on time and being distributed on time and will get to locations on time and elections will hold on schedule.
“I can assure you, as you can see, that all our electoral officers in all the local governments are here with their vehicles to convey the materials to the various local government areas.
”That is an indication that logistics issues have been resolved. We have the money that we need to conduct this election and we have the fuel for the vehicles that will be used,” he said.
The exercise also commenced in Ondo State, where our correspondent observed on Wednesday that the sensitive materials were moved from the Akure branch of the CBN to the headquarters of each of the 18 local government areas of the state in the company of heavily armed security agents.
Commenting on the development, the Acting Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Oyekola Oyelami, stated that the process was smooth. At the same time, proper arrangements were made to ensure that the materials got to the council areas.
The exercise was carried out in Lagos under the heavy presence of security agencies at the CBN headquarters, Marina, Lagos.
The Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, told journalists at the CBN office in Marina that all the materials would be distributed on Wednesday to the LGAs where the electoral officers from each council would do the final distributions on the election day.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Benue State, Sam Egwu, took delivery of sensitive materials from the CBN branch in Makurdi.
The spokesman for the commission in Benue State, Terkaa Andyar, said the commission would send the materials to the local government areas on Thursday.
“It is late now; so what the commission decided is that we are dispatching the materials to local governments that are close by while others who are far away will receive their materials tomorrow (today),’’ he explained.
