Voting in Lokoja, the Kogi capital is yet to start because of late arrival of security officers at the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Registration area Centre (RAC) in Ajayi Crowther Memorial Senior secondary school.
According to the chief Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo who has been at the RAC since friday to observe the proceedings, only 2 security officials were deployed the previous night, despite several requests made by officers from the local government workplace in Lokoja.
He side that security officers eventually found the centre at 7:42 am that queries the transparency of the management of election security deployment.
“When the officers deployed from the local government office requested for security, solely 2 security officers were deployed as of last night and it delayed the distribution of sensitive materials.
“Several calls were created to security agencies and that they promised they were planning to deploy, but we tend to were dismayed and stunned that up till about 7:40 am this morning, the security officials were not here.”
Mr Itodo asked INEC to prepare for an extension of pick time due to the late deployment of security officers and also the indisputable fact that 2 elections are going down at Kogi West; the governorship and senatorial elections.
“The INEC officers were able to deploy but they couldn’t; so for this specific ward that possesses twenty seven polling unit, 100 pick points with a total number of forty nine,000 registered voters is commencing the elections terribly late.
“This cast plenty of doubt on the transparency of the management of election security preparation, notably for this ward which is big and critical.
“They got to prepare as a result of there might have to increase pick for this polling unit that’s commencing late because of late preparation of security officers,” he added.
He conjointly revealed that different RAC’s had similar delays within the deployment of security officials based on preliminary information gathered from the PVT centre.
“Other RACs we tend to discovered that there was delay within the preparation of security officers. As at 7 am, the reports we tend to got from over 222 polling units, fifty three of pu had reported the presence of INEC officers supported preliminary data we tend to received from the PVT information Centre.
“I hope that INEC is observance this example and guaranteeing that once it involves logistics deployment for this election are guaranteed.”
Mr Itodo gave details of some incidents reported at Omala government space, wherever thugs area unit officious with the method and daunting the polling officers.