Ogun By-election: INEC distributes sensitive materials, promises to be fair, open to all
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has begun movement of sensitive materials – ballot papers and result sheets, to Remo North, Ikenne and Sagamu Local Government Areas ahead of the Saturday, August 16, bye – election in Remo Federal Constituency of Ogun State.
The election is to commences by 8:30am in all polling centres and end by 2:30pm.
DAILY POST reports that the contest is to chose a replacement for late Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga, the former lawmaker representing the constituency, who passed away in January after a brief illness.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) for Ogun State, Mrs Saseyi Feyijimi, who coordinated the movement of sensitive materials from the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abeokuta zonal office, assured of transparent process in the conduct of the bye – election tomorrow.
The inspection and movement of the materials were witnessed by critical state holders, including security agencies and agents of three political parties – Olusegun Bankole (APC), Afolabi Orekoya (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) and Ayodeji Daodu (ACCORD) Party.
REC Feyijimi assured that the commission remained fully committed to transparency, adding that the 2,445 officers trained for the bye – election had been warned not to engage in any infraction.
She said, ”We promise to be fair, to be just and be open to all. Every exercise that we do, we publish it. We have a platform for the media and we have another platform for the security agencies.
”The adhoc staff we have trained, some of them are already on their way to their centres. The election commences 8:30am tomorrow in all polling centres and ends 2:30pm but if you are on the queue at the close of the poll, you would be allowed to vote. We have officials to do the job. We have trained 2,445 officials as of Friday, August 15. We have our BIVAS ready and we have back ups”.
She warned all staff of the commission to remain disciplined and do their jobs diligently saying, “we are not going to defend anybody (staffer) who goes out to engage in any infraction, everybody should do what is right” she added.
