Oyo State: INEC Expresses Confidence In Presidential Election Voting Exercise 

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Oyo State has expressed its readiness and complete confidence in the voting exercise for the Presidential and National Assembly election holding on Saturday.

The INEC Electoral Officer, EO in Igbeti, Olorunsogo Local Government Area, LGA of Oke-Ogun Zone, in the Oyo North Senatorial District, Ebenezer Akoledowo,  made this known to Voice of Nigeria while asserting that the environment had been peaceful and everything was ready for Saturday’s election.

Akoledowo affirmed that the Commission was confident of the success of the exercise as there had not been any challenge so far because sensitive materials had been made available at the right time, early enough for the exercise to take off and there were adequate materials on the ground.

The EO stated that the ad-hoc staff members were getting set to move to the Registration Area Centers, RACs across the LGA where a briefing and refresher training would be conducted for them by their supervisors.

“Majority of them are Muslims and they had to go for Jumaat prayers, if not we would have tidied up before now. Most of our RAC centers are very close to the polling units, so they’ll easily get to their RAC centers and we’ll start the briefing and refresher training for them so that by 12am, we’ll allow them to go and relax.”

Akoledowo, who said the election would commence by 8:30am local time, disclosed that voting would be done concurrently with accreditation.

He noted: “That is why it is called Continuous Accreditation Voting System (CAVS). You accredit, take your ballot paper, you vote and you go. If you like, you can find a place to stay or you can go and come back later for the votes to be counted. Voting will end around 2:30pm depending on the crowd.”

The EO further said the Commission had no problem with the number of personnel or ad-hoc staff in the Local Government Areas, as there were more than enough.

Confidence Okwuchi