The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during a during a stakeholders meeting yesterday state that 242 polling units with 142,261 registered voters in 10 local government areas of Katsina State are under serious security threat.
Husseni Jaafar, being the commission head of the Department of Electoral Operation made this known at a stakeholders’ meeting in Katsina, stating that the polling units may be affected in the forthcoming general election.
He said: “We have 242 polling units in 10 security-prone local government areas of Katsina State with 142,261 registered voters. Before, there were 13 local government areas that were under security threat.
“But in an attempt to ensure that all elections are held in all polling units of the state, every month, we sit with all the electorate officers of the LGAs after they have consultation with security officers and critical stakeholders in their respective local government areas and discuss the prevailing situation.
“As we keep on reviewing the situation based on the reports we received from the electoral officers, presently we have only 10 local government areas that we now confirm have security challenges were election cannot hold.
“But all the same, nobody can say what will happen in these 10 local government areas tomorrow, and despite the fact that we have this problem, the commission is still working within the electoral law to come up with another plan that will enable all eligible voters to vote.”
He said the electoral officials have given a directive to all the electoral officers of the affected local government areas to cooperate with security agencies, traditional and religious leaders in order to suggest a better place that will be convenient for the electorate to cast their votes properly.
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