By Dare Akogun
With just five days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara State says it has received sensitive and non-sensitive material to ensure free, fair and credible polls in the state.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner , (REC) Mallam Garba Attahiru Madami stated this during a chat with newsmen in Ilorin.
He said, all sensitive and nonsensitive materials have been received and kept safely at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office in the state capital.
“All uncollected PVC’s will be returned to the CBN office while the various political parties and other stakeholders would be invited to the apex bank for the inspection of all the electoral materials including ballot papers and result sheets before they are distributed and transported to the various local government areas,” he said.
Madami disclosed that all representatives of the seventeen out of the eighteen registered political parties participating in the election in the state would sign another peace accord on Wednesday at the INEC headquarters in Ilorin for peace to reign before, during and after the election stressing that election should not be seen as a do or die affair or as a war.
He therefore urged the contestants, their supporters and all concerned stakeholders to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner and accept the outcome of the election in good faith promising that INEC will continue to maintain its neutral and unbiased position.
He added that the commission has entered into a strong and functional synergy with all security agencies in the state for peace to reign and for the protection of all electoral materials while the Navy and the Air force personels would be engaged in riverine areas particularly in some areas in Kwara North and other places that are not motorable or accessable.
