INEC set to conduct Kebbi bye, re-run elections February 3

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By El-Yakub Dabai, Birnin Kebbi

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), says it has concluded arrangements to conduct Federal Constituencies bye and re-run elections on 3rd February in Kebbi State to fill the gaps created by the departure of the politicians earlier elected to represent their people.

The Kebbi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Abubakar Dembo Sarkin Pawa, stated this while briefing newsmen in Birnin Kebbi.

He further stated that the bye election would be conducted in Yauri-Shanga-Ngaski Federal Constituency while the Court Order for the re-run election in 25 polling units would be in Arewa and Dandi Local government areas of the state.

To this effect, the REC revealed that the commission had received non-sensitive materials and had since distributed them to local officials to ensure early distribution to hard to reach areas, pointing out that adhoc staff had been trained in order to have a hitch-free elections across the affected areas.

According to Sarkin Pawa, the commission had conducted series of meetings with the security agencies responsible for securing the electioneering process and they had strategized on how to conduct a hitch-free election besides the meeting with Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) as well as the leadership of the 18 participating political parties to during which they were educated on the need to ensure free, fair and credible election.

While responding to questions on the late arrival of election materials at polling units as obtained in the past, the Commissioner said “We don’t want to envisage that. We don’t even want to listen to statements alleging that there would be late arrival of materials, we hope there will be non late arrival. As I told you earlier we have received all non sensitive materials and they were since distributed to the affected local government areas.”

The Commissioner assured political parties of equal treatment during the exercise, revealing that all the BVAS to be used for the election had been configured while results would be transmitted to the Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IREV) and warned politicians to always refer to INEC for authentic results before making them public to avoid socio-political crisis.