INEC chair meets electoral officers, transport unions

On Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met with its electoral officers and transport unions to review logistics deployment and other critical issues on the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, in his remarks at the opening of the meeting in Abuja, described logistics deployment as a key component of every election.

Mr Yakubu said the commission considered it appropriate to interface with its field officers and transport service providers to review logistic arrangements during the 2023 general poll.

The transport unions, according to him, include the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).

Stating that the election’s success depended on the ability to deploy materials and personnel, Mr Yakubu said the deployment had been more challenging with issues of infrastructure and insecurity.

He said the meeting would provide an opportunity to interact on 10 critical areas highlighted for discussion, including the general state of preparedness for the general election, the voters’ registration process and the associated issues, clean-up of the voter register, and Permanent Voter Cards collection.

He noted that others included recruitment, training, deployment and remuneration of ad hoc staff; matters arising from expanding voter access to polling units and receipt and deployment of election materials.

Technology deployed for elections; election security; election day processes; forward and reverse logistics and movement of personnel; retrieval of field assets; inventory of election materials; and physical storage conditions and other immovable facilities.

Mr Yakubu said that in line with INEC’s policy, a comprehensive report would be prepared after the review engagements.

He urged the electoral officers and the union leaders to lend their wealth of experience to the discussions to identify strengths and weaknesses.

The INEC chair said this was important for immediate improvement in elections, especially the forthcoming governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled for November 11.

He assured Nigerians that in the next two weeks, INEC would hold more engagements with internal and external stakeholders, including political parties, civil society organisations, the media and security agencies.

The chairman, Planning, Monitoring and Strategic Committee (PMSC), Rhoda Gumus, said the decision to organise the meeting became imperative after the successful conduct of the 2023 general elections.

According to her, the meeting would answer “how far and how well” INEC, the electoral officers, and transport unions performed their respective duties during the elections.

(NAN)