Independent National Electoral Commission Saturday took steps to ensure its neutrality in the forthcoming general election by redeploying electoral officers across the country.

THISDAY learnt that the commission ordered the immediate redeployment of electoral officers, who co-ordinate election responsibilities in the 774 local governments as a response to calls that the field men, who have over stayed in their respective posts should not be allowed to remain in their duty position during the election.

Our source said letters of redeployment were being dispatched Saturday night to the EOs in all the 774 local governments across the federation.

When contacted for confirmation, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Kayode Idowu , confirmed that some of the EOs were affected in the exercise.

INEC had recently organised training and sensitisation programmes for the EOs in Abuja and there was no indication that a redeployment could be in the offing.

At the fifth meeting of INEC's top officials with leaders of political parties in Abuja last week, INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega , who was responding to questions and issues of concern raised by party leaders only told them that INEC would consider the issues they raised, including the susceptibility of EOs who had spent so many years in a place, to manipulations.

The new chairman of Inter-Party advisory Council, Chief Emmanuel Okereke who is also the national chairman of African Liberation Party, had alleged that some electoral officers who had been on ground for close to 10 years in some states are also working for state governors and political parties who sometimes pay about N5 million gratification to them, a development they said makes the EOs to compromise each election in a particular local government area.

Okereke and others had pointedly drawn attention to alleged manipulations of the 2003 and 2007 elections at the grassroots level, noting that Jega, who would be in Abuja would not be there when the integrity of elections are being compromised in various distant constituencies.

Okereke and other party leaders emphasised the need to redeploy several EOs and a few resident electoral commissioners while Okereke's demand that the REC in his own state must be transferred to either Sokoto or Maiduguri made discussions on the issue to end on a slightly lighter note.

Although the chairman of INEC, Jega admitted the critical significance of the party leaders' demand for redeployment of electoral officers, he asserted that such demands may not be justifiable unless the political parties forward formal requests along with evidence that integrity has been compromised.