By Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Independent National Electoral Commission has vowed to reject results procured through violence in the Saturday, December 5, 2020 by-election.
The national commissioner in charge of information and voter education,
Festus Okoye, who discloded this during a consultative meeting with the state Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) held in Valabar on Monday, said any election conducted without the use of card readers will not be declared by the commission.
Okoye added that two resident electoral commissioners have been deployed to the state to guarantee the success of the elections.
He said: “The Commission will not bow to electoral violence and will not declare results procured through violence and resistance to the deployment of Smart Card Readers.
“We are ready and have deployed two resident electoral commissioners to Cross River to support the resident electoral commissioner here. The implication is that we have three RECs to conduct the elections.
“One REC will take charge of the Obudu State Constituency elections while the other one will take charge of the Senatorial elections.
“The REC, who is here will supervise all of them, the staff and deal with issues around security”, Okoye said.
On his part, the Cross River State Police Commissioner, Abdulkadir Jimoh, said the police is everywhere and adequate security will be provided during the elections.
CP Jimoh, who was respresented by DCP Okoro Julius, said; “7 mobile units are coming from different parts of the country in addition to two mobile units we have on ground.
“In addition, 1, q300 police personnel are on ground for the elections to guarantee adequate security”, he said.