Don’t be partisan, INEC warns officials

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has warned members of staff of the commission against partisanship and interference in today’s governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states.

This is even as the electoral umpire reaffirmed its resolve to upload the results of the elections from each polling unit on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Yakubu, in his special message on the conduct of the exercise, said that 5,169,692 Nigerians who collected their permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) were expected to vote in the off-cycle governorship elections in the three states.

“This is the first time in our history that these elections are held on the same day and across three geo-political zones of the country: North Central (Kogi), South East (Imo) and South South (Bayelsa).

“As we approach the election day, I wish to call on our officials (both regular and ad-hoc), to demonstrate the highest level of patriotism and professionalism. As I said repeatedly, not least during my recent readiness assessment visits to the three states, INEC is not a political party and we have no candidate in the election.

“Our responsibility is to safeguard the process and ensure a level playing field for all political parties and candidates. The choice of who would become the governor of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states is entirely in the hands of voters,” Yakubu said.

He also said that the commission had delivered all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the elections.

He noted that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had been configured for deployment to polling units (PUs) as the only means of voter verification and fingerprint/ facial biometric authentication of voters.

He added that all officials on election duty had been trained on the use of BVAS and how to upload on the IReV.