- Safiu Kehinde
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has on Thursday distributed sensitive election materials to local government areas across Anambra State ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
In the wake of the materials arrival at the INEC headquarters in Awka, the electoral body’s officials commenced the distribution which was conducted under tight security.
Supervising the exercise was Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Elizabeth Agwu.
She was assisted by the Commissioner of Police for election duty, Abayomi Shogunle, who reportedly reaffirmed that officers are fully prepared to secure both land and riverine communities during the polls.
Recall that the Police Commissioner had earlier this week expressed the readiness of the Force to ensure protection of lives and properties in a joint effort with other security agencies.
Addressing newsmen, Agwu said that the election materials have been inspected and confirmed to be all intact.
“We have inspected the sensitive material with the Commissioner of Police in charge of this election and other stakeholders involved.
“We have also concluded that the material are all intact. Right now we will start distributing them to the 21 LGAs in the state,” she said.
The INEC REC disclosed that the sensitive materials include 2,802,790 copies of ballot papers, 5,720 booklets of form EC 8A, 287 booklets of form EC 8A for replacement.
Others are 326 booklets of form EC 8B, 73 booklets of form EC 8B for continuations and 21 booklet of form EC 8B for replacement.
Also disbursed by the commission are 21 booklets of form EC 8C, 21 booklets of form EC 8C for replacement, one booklet of form EC 8D, one booklet of form EC 8D for replacement and one booklet of form EC 8E.
On his part, the state’s Police Commissioner, Shogunle, reportedly said that the 55,000 security personnel from various security agencies that would be involved in the election would be deployed as three per polling unit and other places.
Meanwhile, INEC had ahead of the poll confirmed that 2,802,790 registered voters.
The election is billed to hold across 5,718 polling units in the state’s 21 local government areas.