Rescheduled Polls: We’re 98 Percent Ready In Ondo—INEC

By Niyi Olutunde, Akure

In preparation for the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ondo state has said it was ready by “98 percent” with the retrieval of the sensitive materials to conduct a free and fair elections.

Dr. Rufus Akeju, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner gave the disclosure on Thursday in Akure while speaking with journalists on the readiness of the commission for the Saturday’s rescheduled general elections.

Akeju said that the electoral body in the state was ready by “98 percent” with the retrieval of the sensitive materials and also reconfiguration of the Smart Card Readers that will be deployed for the weekend poll.

He revealed that all the hitches that caused the shift in the last Saturday poll have been cleared while all the fresh time-lines for the conduct of the reschedule election are already being met.

Akeju also informed that INEC in the state has retrieved the materials that would be deployed for Saturday rescheduled election from the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Akeju who lamented the tedious process of retrieving the materials arguing that all the stakeholders in the electoral process of the state were at hand to monitor its distribution.

The REC said the commission was ready to regain its confidence in the election rebuilding process by holding the election on Saturday as planned with all stakeholders.

His words, “I can tell you that in Ondo state, we are more than 98 percent ready to hold the Saturday election.

“Right now, we are faster because some of the materials have already been moved to the RAC centres”.

He confirmed that the commission in Ondo state lost huge amounts of funds in deploying materials to the riverrine axis of the state in the last weekend “aborted election”.

“But for us here, we are facing that one squarely because we lost a lot of money there. We had to make the move the first time they asked us to move.

“We (INEC) had to carry the people (ad-hoc staff) across that water and also bring them back again but now it is a huge lost.

“Infact, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

“And they met all the conditions we gave them. They even took all their vehicles to the VIO for inspection to truly certify that they are in a good condition” he added.

Akeju, however, reiterated that INEC would ensure a free and fair general election and also give the political parties a level playing ground.