The Independent National Electoral Commission in Kebbi State has urged politicians to be wary of social media posts announcing results after voting prior to the official declaration of result by the commission.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Alhaji Ahmad Mahmud, gave the advice during an interactive session with stakeholders in Birnin Kebbi on Monday.
“Fake news is now a trend and can mar our efforts to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
“We urge you to be wary of social media-posted results before official declaration.
“Only INEC Returning Officers at wards, local governments and state levels have the statutory authority and power to declare the results,” he said.
He said that 1,938,171 Permanent Voter Cards were received from INEC headquarters out of which 1,860,239 were distributed, leaving 77,932 PVCs unclaimed.
“We have all the sensitive materials at CBN custody, so we have no fear for the materials now.
“I collected the remaining sensitive materials that we had been waiting for and by Wed, February 20, we are going to start distributing them to remote areas and by Friday, 22nd, we hope to finish the distribution in all the 21 local government areas of the state.”
According to him, the state has 225 wards, 1,345 voting points and 2,398 polling units in the 21 local government areas.