INEC to keep electoral materials in FG stores

The Independent Electoral Commission on Thursday disclosed that to ensure the security of electoral materials, the body would make use of stores owned by Federal Government agencies as warehouses.

The electoral umpire also noted that to augment the commission’s facilities, it would deploy government vehicles and other transport facilities to move ballot materials throughout the country.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Kwara, Mr. Timothy Ibitoye, disclosed these at the commission’s secretariat in Ilorin at a meeting with members of the state Inter-Agency Committee on the 2011 elections.

Some of the agencies represented at the occasion were the Nigeria Police, Customs, Nigeria Immigration Service, the National Orientation Agency, the Nigeria Television Authority and the University of Ilorin.

Ibitoye explained that the involvement of different stakeholders in the electoral process was meant to guarantee the credibility of INEC’s voter registration exercise and consequently the 2011 general elections.

He explained that with such interactive forums, the defects identified could be easily corrected, adding that it had become a precondition for the realisation of a free and fair poll.

While noting that when registration commences on January 15, it would run from 8 am to 5pm on a daily basis, the REC stated that the commission had succeeded in developing a software fully owned by it to combat some of the defects experienced in the past.

He noted that already, the commission had commenced the recruitment of over 5,616 ad hoc officials that would take part in the registration exercise.

Meanwhile, the new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Yisa Gana, has promised that he would ensure that all the political parties in the state are given ‘’a level playing ground’’ in the next elections.