The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scaled up the preparations for the February 12, Area Councils (local government) election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
So far, the Commission has recorded 75% distribution of non-sensitive materials to the six Area Councils and released varying sums of funds to Electoral Officers for the hiring of vehicles, servicing, and fuelling of generating sets among others for the exercise.
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for FCT, Yahaya Bello made this known when Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu visited the Territory State Office in Abuja ahead of the Area Councils’ election on Wednesday in Abuja.
This was just as the INEC Chairman, Yakubu said the Commission has done everything it is supposed to do for the FCT Area Councils’ election and sought the assurance of the REC that the set standard of conducting election in the country is met.
While saying the FCT Area Councils’ election will not lower the bar, the Professor of History and International Relations said: “if anything, it will be an enhanced credible poll in the FCT.
“Just like the other two elections, we are going to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the election. By Friday, we will be done with the configuration of all the polling units in the FCT.
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“We have the requisite number of staff that will respond in case of any glitches on the election day. We have made adequate arrangements for transportation so that we can move around on election day. We upload the election results from the polling units. Will also declare the election results in the area councils.”
The FCT REC informed that the Permanently Voter Cards (PVCs) collection is ongoing in all the six INEC Area Council offices and will end on February 4th, 2022, saying the total number of Registered Voters in the FCT presently stands at 1.373 million.
On other areas of preparation, Bello said: “The Commission engaged in and received a number of advocacy visits with stakeholders across the board both at the state level and in Area Councils.
A timetable of training at various levels of engagements has been drawn and will take place accordingly.
“We have met with members of ICCES (Inter-Agency Consultative Committees on Elections Security) to further discuss and profer ways of dealing with issues of security at elections and have aggregated the number of security needed for the FCT Area Council elections.
“The Commission has pursued the drive of Voter education and sensitization on several fronts. Aside from having workshops with stakeholders, such as CSOs, CBOs, NYSC, Youth Groups, etc, we have also taken advantage of social media to drive home the message by posting E-fliers, jingles, E-posters.
“Engagement with our critical stakeholders including press conference; spot, interviews, participation in live TV and Radio programmes and spot interviews were done and still ongoing, both at Area Councils level and Area 10 Commission.
“While in Area Councils, traditional and religious leaders were already consulted and engaged, here we poised to host them early February before the Expanded stakeholders’ engagement to be addressed by the Hon. Chairman on 8th February 2022.”
