INEC Makes U-turn, Says Results Of Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi Will Be Uploaded On IReV

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, on Saturday said the results for the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States governorship elections will be uploaded on its Result Viewing Portal, IReV. 

This was contrary to the position of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bayelsa State, Obo Effanga, recently.

Effanga had spoken at an interactive session with leaders of religious and inter-faith-based organisations.

But Prof. Yakubu, who spoke with newsmen at Ward 009, LEA School, Ganaja Village, Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State while monitoring the mock accreditation ahead of the November 11 governorship election, said the commission would follow the laws for accreditation and results collation during the state 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 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 the three states.

“We are uploading, as we have done in previous elections.”

On the issue of security concerns ahead of the elections in the three states, Yakubu said the commission was already working with security agencies.

He said: “Next Friday, there is going to be a high-level meeting in Abuja co-chaired 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.”

On how INEC intends to control the crowd at PU 009 in Ganaja, Yakubu said the commission was taking proactive measures to give voters a pleasant voting experience on Election Day.

He said that INEC chose the PU 009, LEA School, Ganaja Village because it is the largest and most densely populated in Nigeria with 13,000 registered voters.

He said that on the Election Day, voters register would be broken down alphabetically by the voter surnames to fast track voting process, adding: “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.”

Yakubu identified flooding as one of the challenges of the PU.

He said that INEC was already making arrangements to use Family Support Programme Nursery, Primary and UBE JSS, Gadumo-Lokoja as alternative super RAC in case there was flood during the election.

He said: “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.”

Yakubu thereafter met with members of staff of the commission at the INEC State headquarters in Lokoja.

He said the visit was to ask the staff questions on their preparations, what had been done and what was still outstanding.

Yakubu said the purpose was to assess the readiness of the state for the November 11 election, adding that similar visits would be made to Imo and Bayelsa States.

He added: “So far, so good on the part of the commission.

“We have delivered 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 be the same all over.”

Speaking earlier, the INEC REC for Kogi State, Dr. Gabriel Longpet, said all non-sensitive materials for the election had been received and sent to the LGAs.

The REC said: “We have received 60 percent 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.”

Longpet said that details of areas of possible flash points in the state had been identified and would be the basis of security deployment.