November 07, (THEWILL) – Ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that in any polling unit across the state where there is violence during the election, the result will not be counted.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this on Tuesday, in Yenagoa, while addressing election stakeholders during a meeting in preparation for the governorship election scheduled for Saturday, November 11, said INEC will not return to any polling unit where there is violence for election.
Represented by the INEC National Commissioner supervising Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers State, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, Yakubu said all the BIVAS that will be used for the election are customised for INEC.
He said that INEC details are in the BVAS, while the list and serial number of all the BVAS are with INEC.
He said: “I want to let you know that our BIVAS have been customised 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, and voter education and sensitisation are ongoing. We have made arrangements for the transportation of personnel and materials to ensure that polling units open 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 free, fair and credible elections come Saturday.”
Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa State, CP Tolani Alausa, said the police are fully prepared to ensure a peaceful election in Bayelsa State on Saturday.
Represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Charge of Operations, Mr Ijamah Daniel, the police boss said that the force will deploy six personnel in each polling unit.
He said: “In every polling unit, we are going to deploy three to six personnel. Outside that, the IGP has deployed as many as 21 units of mobile police force under tactical units like the special force, the counter-terrorism unit, special protection unit are all coming to Bayelsa state.
“I will advise every one of us to be law-abiding because we are prepared to withstand any type of challenge that will arise, we are equal to the task.”
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