OSUN: INEC Expresses Readiness For Polls, NSCDC Deploys Personnel

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed readiness to conduct a credible Presidential and National Assembly poll in Osun state on Saturday.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Dr Mutiu Agboke, disclosed this to Voice of Nigeria on Friday at the INEC State Headquarters in Osogbo.

The HOD, Voter Education & Publicity, Gender and Sensitivity, Francis Adewale, who spoke on behalf of the REC, said all arrangements for the success of the exercise on Saturday would be concluded by Friday evening.

He said mobilization of election materials to local government offices had already been done, while deployment of materials to the RAC would be concluded by 5pm on Friday.

His words: “We started with training of the adhoc staff, mobilization of materials down to the local government level and as at yesterday we seem to have completed everything that needed to be done.

“We are waiting for the deployment of the materials to the RAC by this evening, then tomorrow, to the polling units.

“As at now, the sensitive and non sensitive materials are right there at our local government offices, where they will be despatched to the various RAs.

“By 2pm today, the RAC should be opened for all adhoc staff engaged to meet. They would converge for a re-cap training to brush up on what they had been taught at their various training levels.

“Currently, our hall is hosting the RA Techs (RA Technical Officials) who would assist in attending to incidents in the course of the election on Saturday.
So, I can say we are fully set to get go with the election on Saturday, he affirmed.

Adewale further explained that the current cash and fuel shortages in the country would not affect the election negatively as the Commission had taken pro-active measures to prevent such.

Law and Order
He noted that all the security agencies had been briefed and would work in sync to maintain law and order, including in the area of protection of lives, property and all electoral materials.

In a related development, the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in a statement signed by its State Public Relations Officer, ASCII Adeleke Kehinde in Osogbo said it had deployed 4,520 personnel to complement the efforts of other security agencies in the state.

Kehinde said the personnel were deployed to the Three Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty Three (3,763) polling units across the state.

He stated that some of its personnel were deployed to the Six Hundred and Sixty Four (664) wards in the state as well as the three senatorial districts which would be manned by its eagle-eyed patrol teams.

The Public Relations Officer concluded that the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) in the state had fine-tuned modalities for ensuring a hitchfree election that Nigerians would be proud of.

N.O