The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared its intention to hold fresh elections in 18 polling units across Plateau State.
The announcement was made by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Plateau State, Dr. Oliver Agundu, during a press briefing in Jos and follows the rerun elections held on Saturday.
Dr. Agundu explained that the decision to conduct new polls was necessitated by reports of ballot paper shortages encountered in some polling units during the re-run.
The REC, who stated that an investigation had been launched by the commission to unravel the cause of the ballot papers shortage in the affected polling units said, “In respect of the reports that were coming in from some poling units that there were shortages of ballot papers in respect of the Federal House of Representatives seat, we did a holistic appraisal of the situation and we have received a comprehensive report on all the poling units and they summed up to 18 of them in total.
“15 are in Tudun-Wada/Kabong Ward, and three are in Naraguta B ward all in Jos North LGA. So, we have decided that we cannot even take it for granted that this is a negligible number compared to over 900 polling units where the elections took place.
“We have decided to meet with leaders of politics and the media by 8pm today (Saturday) at the state INEC headquarters in Jos because election is a stake-holding exercise. So, we will brief other stakeholders and then inform them of our next plan of action but we are thinking that we will not take for granted that this is an insignificant number.
“We will see the possibility of also giving them the opportunity to also cast their votes tomorrow (Sunday), but we will make a final position on that when we meet by 8pm. That is the situation and we want the public to know that we take their concerns seriously. We are also doing a very thorough investigation on what has happened on these polling units.”