The commission emphasized that every arrangement had been made to guarantee a smooth election process in every Local Government Area throughout the state of Imo.
In an interview with journalists in Owerri, the capital of Imo state, Ben-Opara Emmanuella, Head, Voter Education and Publicity, made this claim.
Recall that organized labor unions requested the suspension of fuel and electricity supplies in Imo State on Tuesday in protest of the brutality that Nigerian Police Force agents inflicted on NLC National President Joe Ajaero last week.
The planned Labour Thursday also led passengers to disembark from all flights headed toward Owerri at the airports in Lagos and Abuja as a form of protest against the assault.
The Nnamidi Azikiwe International Airport was picketed by union leaders and members, which caused operational disruptions and left numerous passengers stranded.
However, in response to a query on whether the Labour unions' continuous actions would interfere with INEC's preparations for the poll, Emmanuella stated that INEC was prepared and that there was no need for concern.
She claims that agreements have been reached with representatives of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) regarding the transportation of INEC personnel and supplies to the appropriate polling places.
"We haven't really been affected by the labor issue because we finished everything before it started," the woman stated. As far as we are aware, the NURTW is not a part of NLC, thus that is the only region where we have not finished our action. They have also promised to provide us their cars, even if they are involved. Regarding everything else, however, we are done. We began our trainings early, you know. The items arrived early. The delicate supplies that came on Tuesday were the only materials that were left before the strike began.
We're prepared. All of our materials, both sensitive and non-sensitive, have been sent to the field as we speak. We have finished training everyone at every level. All items have been placed on the field. Today, the centers will be turned on. We have informed them that we anticipate the RAC centers being activated as early as four o'clock. Since we will be holding refresher training at the RAC centers today, we anticipate that every employee will be present.
Along with guaranteeing that materials and personnel would arrive early and that the results of the February presidential election would not repeat, the INEC official also mentioned that polling will begin at 8:30 p.m.
That is one of the several reasons we are activating the Registration Area Centers (RAC)," she stated. We had problems at first with early poll openings during the last elections, but this time, as the days pass, you keep yourself updated and make adjustments to previous work. Therefore, we are currently operating differently in that, in addition to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NATO and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, we have once more chosen to decentralize bus rental.
“There were two challenges in the presidential election. One was a financial shortfall. Since we were always short on cash, we made an agreement with them that we would cover half of their service expenses and settle the remaining balance through reverse logistics. They agreed. However, they changed their minds about 4 a.m. in the middle of the night, saying there was no money nearby and we would pay them in full. We had to call headquarters as a result, and once we did, we worked with the Central Bank to set up special financing so that we could pay them. It was already too late for them to actually arrive at the field before those things occurred.
However, we have paid them this time. We have provided funding to local government election officers for the rental of buses, and under this arrangement, there won't be any late poll openings. We stated that the purpose of requiring RAC centers to be activated is to guarantee a short transit time between the centers and the voting places. Thus, I hope and anticipate that we will start early.