By joshua 
The Kogi State Independent National Electoral Commission says it is ready for the forthcoming Presidential and National Assembly election scheduled for 25th February election.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Kogi State Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr. Gabriel Longpet made the disclosure while briefing newsmen on the State of preparation of the Commission in the State, expressed satisfaction that the Commission has so far met all the preparations put in place by the Commission ahead of the election.
The REC disclosed that all the line items listed on the timetable leading to election, he said have been achieved by the Commission, listed items like the display of voters register, collections of PVCs, amongst other listed items listed to hold before before the election, said it has been achieved by the commission
The REC commended people of the State for their turnout during the collection of PVCs in state, described as commendable that in a single day, the State recorded 25,000 PVC collection.
The REC said the State has 1.9m registered voters for the forthcoming general election in the State, said following the sensitization efforts put in place by the Commission, the Commission recorded the PVC collection of
1.6m.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner said the commission will conduct the election with the use of the newly introduced BVAs, said the Commission has collected 3508 in the conduct of the election.
He pointed out that the BVAS would be deployed to the 3508 polling units across the State, said the BVAS have been configured, with the Commission in custody of backups for the BVAS.
The Commissioner explained that the Commission registered success during the mock accreditation, said the exercise was carried out in some selected polling units to test the integrity of the BVAS, particularly in difficult terrainy, places with high concentration of voters, said in all areas tested, the Commission has little or no problems in testing the BVAS, identified noticed challenges during accreditation majorly to be finger print during the mock exercise, but said facial recognition, use of mythelated spirit to clean the fingers, led to the success of the mock exercise, said the Commission is not taking chances in ensuring that the BVAS work effectively.
While pointing out that the Commission has trained all levels of staff for the election, the REC pointed out that Adhoc staff have been recruited and trained, with the NYSC providing 90% of the bulk of the adhoc officers for the General election.
Mr. Gabriel mentioned that the adhoc staff have been given enough training with practical demonstration of the use of BVAS for accreditation and subsequent transmission of results,
said the Commission is presently training technical personnel, coalition officers, returning officers, sent from Abuja to be trained as Ward, LG, Federal Constituency and State Coalition officers.
The State REC said the Commission has begun the process of moving non sensitive materials to LGAs, said inspection of sensitive materials for the Senate, President and House of Representatives material is presently ongoing.
Mr. Gabriel Longpet assured that the 2023 general election will be hitch free with the Commission assuring of it commitment to a free fair and credible election.