"Materials are being delivered to many locations. Given the size and distance of some constituencies, we seek the support of NAF to expeditiously deliver materials to three locations in the North East, South East and South West geo-political zones of the country."
To ease the movement of election materials for Saturday's rerun and by-elections in some difficult terrain, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has agreed to airlift them for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Chief of Air Staff, Hassan Abubakar, committed while receiving the INEC Chairperson, Mahmood Yakubu, during a courtesy visit in Abuja on Monday.
Mr Yakubu had requested the assistance of the Air Force to deliver materials to three locations in the North-east, South-east and South-west geo-political zones of the country.
The INEC chairperson said the commission would conduct bye-elections and re-run elections in 26 states of the Federation.
He noted that in nine states, two Senators, four members of the House of Representatives and three members of state Houses of Assembly will be elected in bye-elections to replace members who passed on or resigned their memberships of the national and state Assemblies.
Mr Yakubu disclosed that rerun elections will take place at designated constituencies or Polling Units as ordered by the Election Appeal Tribunals.
"In all the elections, we will fill vacancies in three Senatorial Districts, 17 Federal and 28 State Constituencies spread across 80 Local Government Areas, 575 Registration Areas/Wards and 8,934 Polling Units involving 4,904,627 registered vo
ters, out of which 4,613,291 Permanent Voters' Cards (PVCs) have been collected," he said.
Mr Yakubu noted that the electoral umpire could not handle such a huge national assignment alone, hence the need to mobilise every national asset, including NAF.
"It is in the realisation of this objective that the law empowers the Commission to seek the support of the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the delivery of materials and the protection of election officials as clearly provided for in Section 27(3) of the Electoral Act 2022.
"The elections are holding this weekend. Working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), materials are being delivered to many locations. However, given the size and distance of some constituencies, we seek the support of NAF to expeditiously deliver materials to three locations in the North East, South East and South West geo-political zones of the country. We have already indicated to the Chief of the Air Staff the specific locations and the tonnage of materials to be airlifted," the INEC chairman said.
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He added that the evacuation of materials from local airports to the States where elections will hold will be handled by the Commission and the CBN as has been the standard practice.
"Thereafter, the inspection and movement of all materials to the various Local Government Areas and beyond will be done with the full participation of all stakeholders, particularly agents of political parties and candidates, observers and the media in a transparent manner."
In his response, Mr Abubakar described INEC as a dependable partner in providing security and rapid airlift for the distribution of sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials across the country.
He noted that the relationship between the NAF and the electoral umpire has been anchored on shared objectives, geared towards ensuring that good governance, stability and the rule of law reign throughout the country.
Also, he commended the INEC chairman for the numerous initiatives that have been executed under his watch, insisting that the reforms have raised the bar of transparency and credibility in the nation's electoral process.
"I assure you that we remain willing and ready to continue supporting INEC as we have always done in the past. At the moment, our C-130s are currently undergoing maintenance, but we have other aircraft that can be employed to move sensitive materials. The caveat is that we need to move those materials a little earlier due to the capacity of the airplanes available," the Air chief said.
