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By Amos Okioma, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Pastor Monday Udom, has refuted allegations of double standards leveled against him by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) guber campaign organisation in the state.
Udom said while the PDP campaign team accused him of having contracted the recruitment of ad-hoc staff for the November 16th governorship election to his office and person, he has hardly met with the deputy vice-chancellor, Federal University Otuoke whom the party alleged was contracted by him to recruit the said ad-hoc staff for the polls.
The REC said, “it is baseless and unfounded the report that I contracted the DVC Federal University Otuoke to recruit ad-hoc staff for INEC for the conduct of the forthcoming election.”
He added that the first and only time INEC, Bayelsa office met with the university authority was on a partnership for a movie on election sensitization, entitled Voters Republic, stressing that he has never given anybody contract to provide the electoral body with ad-hoc personnel for the governorship election.
Responding to questions from journalists on the state of INEC’s preparedness for polls, the REC disclosed that already the commission has commenced the training for SPOs and other ad-hoc 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, noting that the electoral umpire owes Bayelsans and Nigerians the duty of conducting free and acceptable polls.
Meanwhile, attempts at speaking with the deputy vice-chancellor of the university yielded no fruit as at press time.
Our correspondent reports that prior to the REC’s press parlay there were wide spread speculations that INEC may have contracted the university don, whose name was given as Prof. Teddy Adiase, to help recruit ad-hoc staff for the commission to enable it conduct the 2019 governorship polls coming up in a forthright.
Speaking against the backdrop of voter apathy, Udom stated that out of a total of 923,182 registered voters in the state, just about 889, 308 PVCs had been collected while a total of 33, 874 were left uncollected.
