Bayelsa Election: INEC Deploys Two National Commissioners, Eight RECs To Monitor Process

Two National Commissioners and eight Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) would be deployed to Bayelsa State for the November 11 governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Tuesday.

INEC disclosed this during a stakeholders meeting on Tuesday, Naija News understands.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who was represented at the meeting in Yenagoa by the National Commissioner supervising Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers, May Agbamuche-Mbu, said that all sensitive and non-sensitive materials to be used are ready for deployment to polling units.

He, however, noted that any BVAS machine that does not have INEC details on it should be shunned, as all sensitive materials are customized.

Yakubu reiterated that the commission is committed to making the election free, fair and credible.

“For more effective supervision of the process, we are deploying two National Commissioners and eight resident electoral Commissioners to support our office in Bayelsa, I wish to assure you of our commitment to a free, fair and credible election come Saturday,” Yakubu said

He added: “I want to let you know that our BVAS have been customized for INEC, so INEC details and the name of the parties are on the BVAS, so any BVAS you see without INEC details cannot be from INEC.

“Another thing, we have the list of the serial number of the BVAS we are going to use; the result sheets will be signed at the polling units.

“Where there is violence, it will be zero; we will not return to that polling unit to conduct the election.

“We have recruited and carefully trained all categories of ad-hoc staff to be deployed to the field, all non-sensitive materials have been distributed to all the eight local government area offices of the state, and voter education and sensitization is ongoing.”

Yakubu added: “We have arranged the transportation of personnel and materials to ensure that the polling units open on schedule on election day.”

On his part, the state Commissioner of Police, Tolani Alausa, said the police were fully prepared to ensure a peaceful election on Saturday.

Represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Charge of Operations, Ijamah Daniel, Alausa said that the force would deploy enough personnel for the election.

“In every polling unit, we are going to deploy three to six personnel; outside that, the IGP has deployed as many as 21 units of mobile police force, under tactical unit like the special force, the counter-terrorism unit, special protection unit are all coming to Bayelsa.

“I will advise every one of us to be law-abiding because we are prepared to withstand any type of challenge that will arise, we are equal to the task,” he said.