Oshiomhole Tasks INEC on Credible Polls

Ahead of the March 28 presidential election, Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the delivery of voting materials to the polling centres on time, so as to guarantee credible democratic elections.

Speaking to the Edo State INEC Resident Commissioner, who paid him a courtesy visit at Government House on Tuesday, Oshiomhole said: “One major area is the question of late arrival of materials. This has been a tool that INEC has used oftentimes, deliberately to reduce the number of voters, but that is not the number that could have voted if INEC did not try to collude to delay arrival of the materials.

“The average middle-class person would have said ‘inasmuch as I want to vote, I am not going to waste my entire day waiting.’ So, many people left in frustrations before the materials arrived and that affected the number of persons that voted. I remember one of your officials told me that they didn’t pay NYSC officials their allowances, which was why they protested. That shouldn’t be election day issues,” he charged.

The governor continued: “I hope you take into cognizance that as you distribute and move the materials, there are increasing security challenges. When you move the materials to CBN, I understand that CBN is a safe zone but, once it moves from there to the local government headquarters, the security challenge is decentralised to 18 locations,” Oshiomhole observed.