Bayelsa State Resident Electoral Commissioner,(REC), Pastor Monday Udom has refuted allegations of double standards levelled against him by the Peoples Democratic Party,(PDP) Guber campaign organisation in the state.
Udom said while the PDP campaign team accuses him of having contracted the recruitment of Adhoc staff for the November 16th Governorship election in his office, he has hardly met with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke, who the party alleged he has contracted to recruit the said Adhoc staff for the polls.
The report that I contracted the DVC Federal University Otuoke to recruit Adhoc staff for INEC for the conduct of the forthcoming election, “it is baseless and unfounded,” he said.
He added that the first and only time INEC, Bayelsa office, met with the University’s authority was on a partnership for a movie on election sensitization titled voters Republic,stressing that he has never given anybody contract to provide the electoral body with adhoc personel for the Governorship election.
Responding to questions from Journalists on the state of INEC preparedness for the November 16 polls, the REC disclosed that already the commission has commenced the training for SPOs and other adhoc staff,emphasising that the commission is ready to conduct free,fair and credible polls.
According to the electoral boss,following INEC’s resolve to continue making votes count, the commission has held series of meetings and consultations with stakeholders,saying that the electoral umpire owes Bayelsans and Nigerians the duty of conducting free and acceptable polls.
Meanwhile all attempts at speaking with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the university yielded no fruits as at Press time. Prior to the REC’s press parlay, there were wide spread speculations that INEC may have contracted the university don which name was given as Prof, Teddy Adiase, to help recrutit adhoc staff.for the commission to enable it conduct the 2019 governorship polls coming up in a forthnight.
Speaking against the backdrop of voters apathy, Udom stated that out of a total of 923,182 registered voters in the State just about 889, 308 PVCs alone have been collected while a total of 33, 874 were left uncollected.