As more reactions trail the unfortunate postponement of the 2019 general elections and the series of alarms being raised by concerned Nigerians about the quantity of sensitive materials, particularly the ballot papers produced for the presidential and National Assembly polls now being found in the hands of desperate politicians in some part of the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that the commission’s sensitive materials are in safe custody.
Series of tweets by INEC via its twitter handle few hours ago, the commission debunked the allegations that sensitive materials meant for the Saturday 23rd February, 2019 polls has made their way into the hands of politicians, presently thumb printing same with the intention to rig the rescheduled elections.
The statement reads in parts: “INEC’s attention has been drawn to stories that ballot papers have found their way to the hands of politicians who are thumb printing same for their favoured party. Specifically, reference has been made to Kogi Central Senatorial District.
“This allegation is not true, as all sensitive materials are in the Commission’s custody or in the Central Bank’s vaults.” the commission said.
There have been trending reports that sensitive materials like ballot papers and Smart Card Readers meant for the Saturday 23rd February, 2019, are being allegedly distributed by some politicians in Kogi Central and other parts of the country to rig the rescheduled elections. However, INEC has said “the stamps in the ballot papers displayed do not represent any of the official stamps to be used in the forthcoming election.”
More so, the commission however called on all electorates to note, “that only duly stamped and dated ballot papers with the endorsement of the INEC Presiding Officer’s signature are valid and will be counted,” adding that such authentic ballot papers only must be acceptable by Nigerians to perform their franchise in their respective polling units.
