•As Lamido, Ohakim, Ladoja, others condemn postponement
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has retrieved sensitive materials distributed in states like Jigawa, Imo, following yesterday’s postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The Administrative Secretary of Jigawa State INEC, Malam Ahmed Ado Danaji, confirmed the move while fielding questions from newsmen in the commission’s office in Dutse, the state capital.
Malam Ahmed Ado Danaji explained that “immediately after the decision, we were directed to retrieve back all the elections material which already arrived some local government areas headquarters. We safely retrieved back it all and they are now in our (INEC) custody, well secured.”
According to him “at the time the elections were postponed, our materials have arrived six local government areas such as Kiyawa and Taura. We used the heavy security to return them.”
He added that “we (INEC) will keep all the materials in our custody; we will not return them back to the Central Bank where it was kept”.
Also speaking, the former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, expressed disappointment over the postponement, which he described as indication of total failure.
All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain in Jigawa State, Hon. Faruk Adamu Aliyu, said the election postponement will not in any way affect the APC chances of overwhelming victory.
Also, the senatorial candidate for Jigawa Central of Jigawa State, Mustaph Sule Lamido, condemned the INEC action, describing it as a demonstration of high level of incompetency of the INEC chairman.
In Imo State, INEC’s office yesterday said it has commenced the retrieval of sensitive materials already deployed to local government areas for the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Francis Ezeonu, said the sensitive materials will be retrieved and returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for safekeeping, while awaiting further instructions.
Meanwhile, anger and disappointment have continued to trail the postponement of the election in the state.
Electorates, who had travelled long distance to the respective places where they are registered to vote, expressed dismay over the timing of the postponement by INEC.
When our Correspondent visited one of the Polling Units in Owerri, a handful of voters were seen waiting for the arrival of INEC officials.
One of the aggrieved voters, Mazi Chuks Ofulum, lampooned INEC for toying with the nation’s democracy.
Also expressing disappointment over the postponement, former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, stated that “postponement does not go down well with any patriotic and right thinking citizen of this country.”
Ohakim, who is also the governorship candidate of the Accord Party, advised INEC to take steps to ensure that there won’t be further postponements.
Also in Oyo, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Mutiu Agboke, yesterday confirmed that sensitive election materials earlier distributed across some local governments of the state have been retrieved and lodged at the Agodi, Ibadan headquarters of the commission for safekeeping.
According to Agboke, the commission decided to warehouse the materials at the headquarters office owing to the huge volumes of other materials yet to be sorted or distributed at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dugbe, Ibadan office.
He added however that the security of the office has been beefed up with security operatives including police, army, civil defence and state security while anti-bomb vehicles, patrol vehicles and surveillance dogs are seen within and outside the premises of the commission.
But mixed reactions have however trailed the postponement of the polls, as a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja called for the probe of the decision after the entire INEC leadership might have been sacked due to what he described as their incompetence in handling electoral matters.
Agboke who noted that just like every other Nigerian and observers, the management of the Commission also felt bad about the need for the postponement, however said it should not translate to apathy of voters on the newly stated date.
“We have started the distribution of our sensitive materials and in fact, some of them have been deployed to the local governments but along the line, we got the news of the postponement by one week.
“Immediately, we retrieved all the materials back. We retrieved them back in the presence of the police.
“What we did was that the retrieval was to the state office because we still have large volumes of cartons of ballot papers at the CBN office, so we are trying to decongest the CBN. What we have done is that those we have sorted out, we are taking their custody here in our Agodi head office and we are fortifying the security around here.
“The Commissioner of Police was here earlier in the day and more policemen have been deployed. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) had been contacted and men of the Nigerian Army have been stationed here. NSCDC personnel are also here. Even at the CBN, more personnel have been deployed to fortify the place for us. I want to assure the people of Oyo State that nothing has happened to any of our sensitive materials. They are intact,” he said.
But Senator Ladoja who was visibly angry at the postponement described it as a sad development which shows the incompetence of INEC leadership.
He said “If you cannot even conduct an election, and you are talking about democracy, what democracy is that? People will read a lot of meanings into it. I want to repeat that it is due to the incompetence of the people that are there, he said.