The Independent National Electoral Commission is to begin the distribution of sensitive election materials in Anambra State as from Wednesday.
Senior officials of the Commission who spoke at the INEC secretariat in Awka on Tuesday said the sensitive materials would be deployed from the Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters in the state to the 21 local government areas in Anambra.
“We are commencing the distribution of sensitive election materials tomorrow (Wednesday) ahead of the elections on Saturday,” the Head of Voter Education and Publicity at the Anambra State INEC headquarters, Leo Nkedife, told our correspondent.
He added, “These materials which were returned to the CBN, as directed from our headquarters in Abuja, shall now be moved to the LGAs in the state under tight security.
“We are starting the distribution tomorrow to avoid anything that may pose as a challenge to the smooth conduct of the elections on Saturday.
“We carried out the reconfiguration of the smart card readers and it was successful. So, now it is time to move both sensitive and non-sensitive items to prescribed locations before being distributed to polling units for the elections.”
Nkedife had said on Sunday that the Commission was reconfiguring the new smart card readers that were used to replace those earlier destroyed by fire at its secretariat in Awka.
Last week, INEC announced that it had replaced the 4,695 burnt card readers and other sensitive materials that were destroyed on Tuesday by fire at the secretariat of the commission in Awka, Anambra State.
The replacements were collected from across the country and deployed to Anambra, before being deposited at the CBN.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra State, Nkwachukwu Orji, stated that the commission had been able to stabilise its operations in the state after the fire incident.
