Moses Ofodeme
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced its readiness for the Ondo Governorship elections.
The INEC also described the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election as not only a national election, but with also of global interest.
Speaking during a stakeholders meeting in Abuja on Thursday, its Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu, revealed the Commission has accredited 111 domestic and international Organisation deploying 3,554 observers for the election.
“We have also accredited over 100 radio, television, newspaper and online media organisations deploying about 700 personnel, including 129 female journalists, the largest number for any off-cycle Governorship elections in Nigeria. We have also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties for all the polling and collation locations across the State. I want to assure you that the accreditation cards for all categories of stakeholders are ready. Our State office here in Akure will soon commence the distribution of accreditation tags, including election duty vehicle stickers.
“In our various engagements with the security and law enforcement agencies, we underscored the importance of providing security during the election to guarantee personal safety and protection of observers, the media, our own officials (both regular and ad hoc staff), service providers such as transporters and, above all, the citizens that will vote during the election.
“I am glad that the relevant agencies have given us the necessary assurances of security during the election, including unimpeded access to voting and collation locations for observers and the media. We will hear more from the representative of the Inspector-General of Police shortly.” Yakubu said.
He reassured stakeholders that INEC is ready for the election, adding “We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.”
The Commission he said has conducted mock accreditation in 12 polling units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of the State. The purpose was to test-run its deployment of technology to safeguard the credibility of the election.
“I am glad to report that the mock was successful and the result can be viewed on the IReV portal. But let me also quickly add that the machines used for the mock accreditation and the training of officials will not be used on Election Day. We have sufficient machines for the election which have been configured for voter accreditation and the upload of result distinct from those used for mock accreditation and training.”
He told the meeting “So, let me summarise what we have done so far to ensure the success of the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election holding next week. We engaged several times with stakeholders at the national level and here in Ondo State. We have made every information about the election available to Nigerians. We have published the list of candidates, the number registered voters and the number of PVCs collected by polling units.
“We have made available the locations of voting and collation centres across the State. We have accredited observers and media organisations for the election. We have also accredited polling and collation agents and made the details public. On Tuesday this week, we visited many of our Local Government offices to assess their readiness for the election. We have test-run our election technology in preparation for the Election Day.
“We are deploying enough technical support staff to address any challenges that may occur.
“We have made arrangements for land and maritime transportation of personnel and materials. We have arranged for the delivery of sensitive materials for the election to arrive as early as Tuesday next week. We will invite political parties and other stakeholders for the usual inspection of the materials at the Central Bank here in Akure and throughout the movement of sensitive materials to the Local Governments and the Ward centres. We have warned our staff that there will be consequences for dereliction of duty in any way or form. Tomorrow afternoon, I am going to address the staff, including the Electoral Officers from the 18 Local Government Areas.”