INEC moves hundreds of staff to Bauchi, Kaduna

Hundreds of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission left the commission's head office in Abuja yesterday to Bauchi and Kaduna states to handle today's governorship polls, replacing youth corps members who withdrew after last week's post-election riots.

More than half a dozen luxury Marco Polo buses lined up outside the commission's office in Maitama on Wednesday before departing with large numbers of staff in the late afternoon, within a heavily guarded convoy to the two states.

"We don't want to leave anything to chance," said Emmanuel Umenger, the commission's director of Public Affairs, shortly before the start of the five-hour trip.

The commission conceded on Tuesday that it faced a real threat of massive boycotts of the elections by the corps members in the state where at least four serving members died in the violence last week.