ADSIEC Suspends Adamawa Council Election, Accuses EndSARS Protesters Of Vandalization

The proposed local government council election in Adamawa State has been suspended over inadequate funding.

Ezenwoko’s Blog reports that the Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission (ADSIEC) announced this in a press release on Friday, October 29.

The chairman of the commission, Alhaji Isa Shettima, noted in the release that the election earlier scheduled for December 4, 2021, will no longer hold due to some challenges.

He explained that a number of incidents had recently impacted negatively on properties of the commission, adding that the money allocated for the exercise in the 2021 budget is too small to organize the proposed election.

The ADSIEC chairman accused #ENDSARS protesters of vandalizing election materials in the state, contributing to the inadequate election materials.

Shettima said; “Preparations by the commission to conduct the LGC election are suspended to give the government time to source for supplementary funds.”

He stressed that arrangements for the election are confronted with multiple challenges, explaining that for instance, “The re-usable election materials like ballot boxes, duty vests, bags, kits among others retrieved from the field after the last election were vandalized by End SARS demonstrators.”

He said also that the conversion of voting points into polling units has increased the number of polling units from 2, 609 to 4,104 in the state.

The development according to him will lead to an increase in both facilities and ad hoc staff. He added that the ongoing registration exercise of new voters will have a resultant increase in ballot papers that will be required for the council election.

“These changes will require additional funds to organize and conduct the election; hence, the suspension of the exercise, to enable government source supplementary funds,” Shettima added.

Meanwhile, incumbent chairmen and councillors across the 21 LGAs of the state will elapse their tenure on December 8, 2021, Ezenwoko’s Blog understands.

It is, however, unclear how the electoral commission intends to fill the vacuum that would be created by not doing the election earlier scheduled to hold in December.