Action Aid Nigeria has revealed that poor logistics and coordination of ad-hoc staff of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) marred the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

The body pointed out that although the transport workers picked up the INEC staff as it was expected of them to the polling unit, unfortunately they were unable to locate the polling unit on time.

This according to them led to the late arrival of the electoral materials to the polling unit and in some instance mis-direction of the BVAS machine to wrong locations.

The Project Coordinator of Enhancing Logistic Delivery for Citizens Participation (N-logic) Ric during the Project Dissemination and workshop organized yesterday in Abuja said “human error was what showcased itself in the logistics management the logistics framework for the election was already in place however, the challenge INEC had was the adhoc staff that were moving election materials”.

He stressed that going forward, INEC need to specify the exact location where the election materials are to be deployed to avoid disconnection.

The Governance Program Director, Action Aid Nigeria, Mr Celestine Odo, said the one year project funded by Ford foundation was focused on supporting logistic delivery of INEC as it brought in landmark changes in the logistic of INEC, saying in collaboration with INEC they developed a logistics framework for the 2023 election.

He noted that the presidential election was not as good as the gubernatorial as elections did not hold on many places due to logistics challenge but there was improvement during the gubernatorial election.

While stressing the need for INEC to commence planning on time, Odo noted that as stipulated in the 2022 Electoral act it is important that INEC t get it’s funding a year to the election saying logistics has always being the biggest challenge in every election as it constitute 70percent of INEC activities.

The country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, stated that was implemented in collaboration with critical stakeholders, which include the Independence National Electoral Commission, the civil society situation rule, that’s Nigerian Civil Society station rule.

She said the project worked to address the challenges inherent in the deployment of electronic materials and administration of elections generally, saying through this process, they secured the accreditation of 700 candidates trained 529 persons on observation processes and also used an innovation observer app, that is the I observer app, during the 2023 general elections.