Elections to hold in only 8 of the 27 local government areas of Borno State

The Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Samuel Madaki on Friday said elections would be held in eight of the 27 local government areas of Borno State which were safe for the exercise.

Speaking to journalists on preparation made to have free and fair elections in the state, Madaki said the state was classified into three by INEC, safe, unsafe (high risk) and relatively safe.

He said the high risk areas were 12 , the relatively safe were 10 and those that are safe enough were five.

According to him, election were going to be held in the safe local government areas and some of the relatively safe councils including Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere, Magumeri, Bayo, Kwaya-Kusar, Hawul, Shani, Damboa and Gubio.

He said no fewer than 70, 485 displaced victims of Boko Haram in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps who were registered voters in Borno would be allowed to vote.

Madaki, who said adequate arrangements had been made to ensure displaced persons from other local governments were not disenfranchised as they would be given opportunity of voting at IDPs camps.

He said: "There are 70, 485 displaced persons who are registered voters from 16 local governments at IDPs camps in Maiduguri. We've made adequate arrangement for them to vote. The security agencies will be providing security for them".
He also said a total of 1,763,860 permanent voters cards (PVC) were received by the commission in Borno out of 1,838,514 registered voters, adding that 1,417,750 have been distributed so far.

He regretted INEC could not make available PVCs for all registered voters who would not vote today. "Over 18, 000 PVCs are still being expected," he declared even as he assured that some would receive their PVCs from the new delivery after the presidential poll.

He also revealed that 25,125 ad-hoc staff had been engaged for the elections which will be held in 312 wards and at 3928 polling units.

Madaki said over 300 observers who registered with the national headquarters of the commission.

He also revealed that to forestall any hitches as a result of malfunction of card readers a total of 5000 was brought to the state exceeding the numbers required.

Credit: Michael Olugbode/ThisDay

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