Jutha Gupah, Maiduguri
The Borno state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mohammed Magaji has said that 2.32 million electorates are to vote in 3,933 polling slated for today (Saturday) across the state. Announcing the commencement of distributing non-sensitive and sensitive election materials on Friday in Maiduguri, Magaji said accreditation and voting are carried out in series and simultaneously between 8am and 2pm of today. He said ballot papers, result sheets and all other EC forms, including Smart Card Readers have been provided and fully enhanced and configured for delivery to polling stations. “Ninety seven per cent of non-sensitive materials have been delivered to the 27 council areas in Borno,” he said. According to him, security architecture for elections has been designed, developed and deployed to accompany 11,000 officers to secure electoral staff, logistic materials and buildings. He said that 5,071 card readers have been procured and delivered to all the polling units. Magaji further disclosed that 532,335 Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) have been received by the commission in 2017 and 2018. He however, noted that out of this, 371,372 PVCs were collected with a balance of 37,241 cards uncollected by registered voters in the state. He said the current uncollected PVCs with the commission stood at 160, 863. He said that during the general elections in 2015, INEC received 1,667,097 PVCs and distributed 1,628,856 cards to the electorates. Speaking on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) voting centres, Magaji said: “Eight IDP voting centres have been identified to accommodate 409,000 registered voters. According to him, the inaccessibility of Kala/Balge, Abadam, Guzamala, Marte, Dikwa, Ngala, Kukawa and Mobbar councils by commission, has designated Maiduguri, Monguno and Gambouru IDP camps for the general elections. He said the commission is committed to conduct free, fair and credible elections in the state.
