Hours to gov’ship election, gunmen kidnap INEC official in Bayelsa, boat with sensitive materials capsizes
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the abduction of its Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) deployed in Ossioma in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa state few hours before the commencement of the governorship election in State.
According to Wilfred Ifogah, INEC’s HOD of Voter Education and Publicity in Bayelsa, the SPO, an ad-hoc staff member of INEC, was reportedly abducted while waiting to board a boat at Amassoma Jetty in Sagbama LGA.
The electoral umpire said security agencies have been alerted, and efforts are underway to secure the safe release of the official.
Also, a boat conveying election personnel and materials capsized on its way to Koluama Registration Area-17 in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
According to Ifogah, “Result sheets, power banks and luggage containing personal effects of staff” were lost in the boat mishap.
Ifogah, however, noted that no life was lost as all the election personnel numbering 12 and the boat operator were rescued.
The affected Registration Area, Koluama-17, has a total of 5,368 registered voters, with 5,311 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected. INEC said it is actively working to ensure that the election in this area proceeds as planned, despite the setback caused by the boat mishap.
Earlier, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the off-cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo State had been delivered.
The INEC boss, who stated this on Thursday in Abuja, said 5,169,692 Nigerians who collected their PVCs are expected to vote in the governorship elections in the three states.
Speaking in Yanagoa, the Bayelsa capital on Wednesday, Yakubu said, “I want to let you know that our BIVAS have been customized for INEC, so INEC details and the name of the parties are on the BIVAS, so any BIVAS you see without INEC details cannot be from INEC.
“Another thing, we have the list of the serial number of the BIVAS we are going to use, the result sheets will be signed at the polling units.
“Where there is violence, it will be zero, we will not return to that polling unit to conduct the election.
“We have recruited and carefully trained all categories of ad-hoc staff to be deployed to the field, all non-sensitive materials have been distributed to all the eight local government area offices of the state, voter education and sensitization is ongoing,” he said at a stakeholders meeting,
Yakubu, represented by the INEC National Commissioner supervising Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu added that arrangements for the transportation of personnel and materials have been made to ensure that the polling unit opens on schedule on election day.
“For more effective supervision of the process, we are deploying two National Commissioners, and eight resident electoral commissioners to support our office in Bayelsa, I wish to assure you of our commitment to a free, fair and credible election come Saturday,” he said.
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