The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) says it would conduct the local government elections in line with the Rivers State Government and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control ‘s approved Covid-19 guidelines.
It also disclosed that the recruitment of no fewer than 20,000 ad-hoc staff would commence from March 1.
The Chairman of the commission, Justice George Omereji (rtd) and the Commissioner for Public Information/Enlightenment, Dr Barango Tariah, gave the hint while speaking on a live radio programme in Port Harcourt earlier in the week.
Barango said the engagement of the ad-hoc staff would be followed with a training ahead the April 17, LG polls.
Explaining further, Justice Omereji said the training would be done in line with Covid-19 guidelines to ensure that no participant in the election violates the law.
The RSIEC chairman also said that the training of ad-hoc staff would be done two weeks ahead of the polls, so that those trained would be fully prepared for the conduct of the polls.
Justice Omereji assured that the electoral umpire would conduct credible LG polls in April, as publicity and enlightenment have been done across the 23 local government areas to sensitise the populace.
He sued for public participation in the polls, assuring that the current RSIEC was neutral, adding that criticisms from detractors were only meant to distract the commission from delivering on its mandate.
“You can take my word to the bank and cash it”, he said.
On funding of the commission, he said, “This is the first time that funds to the commission have fully been paid, and we thank the governor for that.”
Disclosed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) provided it with most of the data and records used in the elections, Omereji assured that every vote must count, but stated that there was need for wide participation from the citizenry.