Ezeonu said that the exercise ought to have been concluded on Thursday according to INECs timetable.

He blamed the delay on logistic challenges which, he said, led to the late arrival of materials in the state.

He said, The materials arrived late yesterday (Thursday), while some of them came in very early today (Friday).

He said both the INEC and CBN officials were busy all night sorting the materials out.

The REC said: We have already started distributing non-sensitive materials, while we sort out the sensitive ones as you can see.

In about one hours time, when we are done with the sorting, we will start distributing the remaining materials to the 27 Local Government Area INEC offices of the state, he said.

He said that the commission invited all relevant stakeholders to witness the exercise as part of the efforts to prove the transparency of the process, We always strive for transparency and that was why we invited everybody, including the media, security agencies, party representatives, local and international observers to witness the exercise, Ezeonu said.

He commended security operatives for their patriotic efforts toward the success of the elections.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise was conducted under heavy security by heavily armed operatives.