The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun distributing electoral materials to Lagos and Nasarawa states ahead of the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday.

Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, told journalists at the Central Bank of Nigeria office, Lagos, on Wednesday, where the materials were kept.

Mr Agbaje said all the materials would be distributed on Wednesday to the 20 LGAs, where the electoral officers from each council would do the final distributions on election day.

He said all political parties were invited for the distributions, which showed that Lagos State had enough materials for the elections.

”The police and soldiers will escort all trucks to various Local Government Areas,” he said.

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Idowu Owohunwa, said the exercise was one of the police electoral mandates to provide security for the citizens, electoral materials in transit or office, INEC officials and observers.

Ten political party agents were present at the distribution ceremony.

In Nasarawa, Uthman Ajidagba, Resident Commissioner of INEC in the state, explained that the materials distributed included customised ballot papers, result sheets and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

The distribution, which took place at the Lafia branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was witnessed by security agencies, including the police, Nigeria Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), State Security Service (SSS) and representatives of political parties.

“We have not distributed any sensitive materials to any LGAs until today, so ballot papers, result sheets and other sensitive forms are all part of the materials being distributed today.

“While ballot papers, result sheets and others were loaded from the CBN Lafia, the BVAS machines were loaded from the Nasarawa State headquarters of the commission,” Mr Ajidagba said.

He also said all the BVAS machines to be used in the election had been configured, and that additional backup BVAS were also deployed alongside technicians to handle unforeseen problems.

The REC reassured the public that the commission would deliver a credible, free, fair, and transparent election that would reflect the people’s choice.

On his part, Maiyaki Muhammad-Baba, Commissioner of Police in the state, said the police officers and other security agencies were fully ready to ensure a peaceful election in all parts of the state.

(NAN)