..Train members of Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on the workings of (BVAS),
Tracereporters –The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said all arrangements were on course for the conducts of the 2023 general election. This was as it allayed the fears that the Commission was having financial constraints to conduct the polls.
The Commission speaking through its Kaduna State Admin Secretary, Awwal Mashi during a stakeholders’ meeting and training of members of Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on the workings of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), said INEC has gotten all the funds required for the conduct of the general elections.
Mashi also said that, the Commission had recently held a successful mock accreditation to ascertain the functionality and efficacy of the BIVAS machine, saying that, “satisfactorily, the machines were perfectly okay. I can assure you that God willing, we will not have any problems with our machines,” he said.
Mashi said that about 408,000 new Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and 228,000 others transferred from other locations were received by the Commission and almost 90 percent of them had been collected by the owners before the close of the PVC distribution exercise.
He said that sensitive materials for the election were already secured at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while 70 percent of the non-sensitive materials have already been distributed to the INEC state offices.
“We have employed 34,000 personnel to conduct the elections in the state, this figure includes the adhoc to man the 8,012 polling units in Kaduna State
Speaking on funding, the INEC Chief said, “Let me us this opportunity to tell you that, all funds for the execution of the general election have been sent to us. Everything that is required in term of financing have already been received and that includes for transportation, payment of ad-hoc staff and others; everything has been sent to us.”
The meeting featured questions and answers session and participants were made up of politicians, traditional and religious leaders among others, while the training of the journalists was characterized by practical demonstration of how BVAS device works.
Speaking on behalf of the trainees, Chairman, Correspondents’ Chapel, NUJ Kaduna, AbdulGafar Alabelewe, expressed appreciation to INEC for the training, saying that, the training was necessary in view of the new innovations introduced to the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
He however urged journalists to deploy the knowledge acquired while covering the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections.
Please Subscribe, Like and Share.
