Despite the exponentially increased in the number of Coronavirus cases in the country, the Benue State authority has set to proceed in holding the local government elections this coming Saturday.

Though, the state Commissioner for Health and secretary, COVID-19 task force, Dr Sunday Ongbagbo, has said the state only had six positive cases out of which only two are currently active but later yesterday when the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control released the data for the day, two new coronavirus cases were recorded in Benue state.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission Dr Loko Tersoo, announced that the local government elections would hold on Saturday, March, 30, 2020.

The statement which was signed by the Principal Information Officer of the commission, Ngodoo Toryem, the statement reads in part:

The Chairman, (BSIEC) said the commission has put in place necessary precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the electorates and poll officials.

Prominent among the measures are the provision of hand sanitisers, hand wash in all the polling units, decongestion of voting points by ensuring that accreditation and voting are done simultaneously, where not more than thirty people at a time would be allowed in the polling units and social distance of not less than two metres away from each other will be observed.

“Electorates are also advised to come to the polling unit wearing their face mask.”

The commission reiterated its determination to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible. It also enjoined all stakeholders to play the game by the rules.