FOLLOWING the postponement of the last Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections, Gombe state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has retrieved all the sensitive election materials earlier distributed on for the conduct of the elections across the 11 local government areas in the state.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Alhaji Umar Ibrahim disclosed this in a press statement he personally signed and made available to Journalists in Gombe on Tuesday.
He stated that the materials have all been returned back to the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Gombe branch while all the smart Card Readers earlier deployed have also been retrieved from the local government areas in the state for reconfiguration against Saturday 23 February 2019 rescheduled date.
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The REC explained that “to ensure that challenges earlier encountered are surmounted and guarantee elections that meet international best practices, the Commission in the state has domesticated a work plan without delay in line with the approved work plan for the election week.”
“The Commission wishes to reassure the good people of Gombe state that it is committed to the sanctity of the ballot which is the right of every Nigerian and the conduct of free, fair and credible election”, he further stated.
Umar Ibrahim concluded that “we call on all eligible voters to come out in mass on Saturday with their Permanent Voter Cards to vote for the candidate of their choice without violence.”
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