INEC in Plateau begins re-configuration of 4,989 card readers ahead of Saturday polls

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Plateau State has stated that no fewer than 4,989 card readers are being re-configured towards a hitch-free presidential and National Assembly elections come 23rd February 2019.

Director Voters Education and Publicity, Mr Osareti Imahiyereobo who disclosed this to Tribune Online in Jos said apart from the reconfiguration of the card readers, the commission is putting other logistics in place to make the Saturday exercise hitches free across the seventeen local government areas of the state.

Mr Imahiyereobo stated that all necessary materials would be deployed on Thursday under the watch of all registered political parties adding that those materials deployed last week Friday had been recovered and under the safe keep of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the state.

“ We would deploy the material on Thursday, we want to assure the people of Plateau State that everything will work as planned come next Saturday. Those materials that had been deployed last Friday had been retrieved and kept in CBN. Political parties would be invited on Thursday to see the deployment to various local governments in the state.

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“Apart from this, there would be the training of ad-hoc staff along with those that had been trained earlier; they would be deployed accordingly along with our staff on 22nd of February to various part of Plateau ahead of the Saturday elections.

“We don’t have materials that anybody can tamper with, for the fire incident that happened in our Qua’Pan local government office, it was as a result of negligence, there were fire extinguishers there but the security man simply cannot access them as at the time of the incident. Such an incident cannot happen again.

He debunked the rumour doing the round that some of the materials meant for last Saturday election were in the hands of some politicians in the state adding that the Commission has not recorded case of missing ballot papers or any other materials.

Said he: The materials that were deployed last Friday are back to the Central Bank, the political party will check them again before they will be deployed on Thursday. In Plateau there is no report that the materials get to the hand of politicians, no security report to that effect”

In the same vein, the State Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO) DSP Mathias Terna Typov also dismissed the rumour that ballot papers and other sensitive materials were intercepted in the houses of some prominent politicians in the state. He, however, enjoined the people of the state to avoid rumour that could cause panic and disorder