TSIEC BEGINS DISTRIBUTION OF SENSITIVE ELECTION MATERIALS
By Mohammed Tikka
The Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC), has began the distribution of all sensitive and non sensitive materials to all the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, ahead of Saturdays 18 November, Local Government Polls.
The distribution was carried out at the Jolly Nyame Stadium in Jalingo the State headquarter.
Among the items distributed by the State Electoral Commission were ballot boxes, ballot papers and result sheets for the elections.
The TSIEC chairman, Dr. Philip Duwe, while interacting with reporters said his commission was ready for the poll and they want to change the way things are done.
“We are ready for the election, we are distributing sensitive materials to all the Local Government Areas in the State because the Saturday election will take place in all the Local Government Areas in the State,” he said.
Reiterating the commission’s readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible election, Dr. Duwe said election materials would be made available to the 3,650 polling units spread across the 168 wards of the State on time, because of the nature of distance and hard to reach areas.
“We are indeed grateful to the Almighty for counting us into this 16 of November 2023, as you aware on the 18 of November that is Saturday, the Local Government election which all of us planned by the grace of God will happen, now in the preparation towards the election today is 16 of November 2days to the election, we have agreed together with the stakeholders principally among is the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) headed by Hon.Kuriya and the other members and other political parties and indeed stakeholders, we want to change the way things are done, we all know how Taraba is, we are all leaving very far away from each other, the 16 Local Government Areas are far away from each other and the roads are not even so good, some you have to cross the river, some you have to treck, some you have to climb the mountains and we are very clear that on the 18 there is no how you will pick materials from Jalingo for example to Gembu, Yakoko, Dampar, Chunku, Ussa, Yakuben, Dakka or Kurmi, is not possible on the 18 when elections are to happen. So, we agreed that 2days to the election day our materials should go to where they will be contested and today you can confirm is 16 of November, and we are here gathered by the grace of the Almighty and with the peace we enjoyed here we hope that this peace will manifest on the 18th.
“We are brother and sister together we wanted to entrenched a system of leadership at the Local Government and we have tried to be as transparent as possible, we have members of the political parties who are here, so on this note we want to say the process has began the materials are leaving Jalingo, some will leave today and the culmination is tomorrow, today 16, tomorrow 17, the electoral officers have already finished mapping of how they can distribute them, we want this to be very symbolic, because the parties have the right to know that these materials are going, is part of transparency and when the materials gets home to the Local Government, they would also be crosscheck before they distributed.
“We are praying that God Almighty will grant you journey mercy, because we are very concerned about your safety, drive with care, speed kills, you are only better driver when you go safely and return safely,” Thank you.
On their part, the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said they were satisfied with all the election procedures of the Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC).
This was disclosed by the IPAC chairman in the state, Hon. Kuriya Tafarki Auta, in an interview with the newsmen at the TSIEC distribution center.
Hon. Kuriya said they are all satisfied with all the procedures taken by the TSIEC in respect of the November 18 election. He used the medium to thank TSIEC for leaving up to expectations saying that TSIEC have done their work very well and that he is optimistic that the election will be a successful one.
