21st February, 2019
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kwara, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, says the commission will retrain all ad hoc staff that would take part in Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
Attahiru-Madami made this known on Thursday in Ilorin.
According to the commissioner, the training would take place on Friday in all the 193 Registration Areas (RAs) in the state.
He said those that would take part in the refresher course were Senior Presiding Officers (SPO), Presiding Officers (PO), Polling Clerks, Collation Officers and Returning Officers.
The commissioner added that NYSC members that would handle the Card Readers would also be trained because the devices had been reconfigured for the rescheduled elections.
Attahiru-Madami also dismissed the rumour that the ad hoc staff were trained at the Mandate office of Sen. Bukola Saraki.
According to him, the report was not only false but a calculated attempt by disgruntled politicians to discredit INEC in the state.
“All our ad hoc staff and corps members were trained in the Registration Areas in the 193 wards in the state.
“Those in Ilorin were trained at Government Day Girls School, Oko Erin, Ilorin.
“So the claim that we train ad hoc staff in a particular politician’s campaign office is totally false,” he added.
He said the commission was set for Saturday’s elections as all sensitive and non-sensitive materials had gone to the local governments and would be distributed to wards on Friday.
Attahiru-Madami, however, appealed to the people of the state to come out on Saturday to vote for candidates of their choice, adding that they should not allow the earlier postponement to discourage them from exercising their franchise.