BREAKING NEWS: INEC ban negligent employees from March 11 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission has banned all its employees found to be negligent during the February 25 general elections from engaging in the March 11 governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

The chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Saturday, disclosed this in a meeting with the commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioners.

He said, “As we approach the governorship and state assembly elections, we must work harder to overcome the challenges experienced in the last elections. Nothing else will be acceptable to Nigerians.

“All staff found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including collation and returning officers, must not be involved in the forthcoming elections.

“RECs must also immediately initiate disciplinary action where prima facie evidence of wrongdoing has been established.”

Yakubu further revealed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System would once again be deployed for voter accreditation and result management.

“The deployment of BVAS has gone a long way to sanitise voter accreditation as can be seen from the result of recent elections. Since last week, the commission has intensified the review of the technology to ensure that glitches experienced, particularly with the upload of results, are rectified.

“We are confident that going forward, the system will run optimally,” Yakubu said.

He, however, commended the efforts of Nigerians and the level of maturity shown by political leaders all through the election period.