As Abians prepare for the Saturday’s National elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has commenced distribution of sensitive materials in across the local government Areas in Abia state.
The distribution started Thursday morning, with the materials meant for the local governments that have some appreciable distance from the state capital, sent theirs first.
12 noon Thursday, about six council areas out of seventeen in Abia state had taken custody of their materials through the electoral officers.
The sensitive materials which include the card readers and ballot papers are seen jealously loaded in buses conveying them to their destinations in the company of policemen.
Each bus loaded with the materials, there was an escort of three fully loaded armed policemen and the DPO of that area.
The entire INEC and CBN environment which are located on the road is flooded by security men of the Nigerian police force with a few Nigeria security and civil defense corps operatives.
However pressmen were barred from entering the CBN in Umuahia to observe the distribution, but party officials and representatives were granted access with some observers to witness the exercise at the Central Bank.
The head of publicity unit, INEC, Abia, Mr. Bamidele Oyetunji, told Vision Africa Radio that the whole essence of the early dispatch is for the distribution to various polling units not to be delayed on the Election Day.
He added that the commission decided to move ahead of time to ensure that they overcome the challenges of logistics, saying that with the pace things are going, there will not be any reason the elections in the state will not be successfully conducted.