Ondo Guber: Do Not Compromise, Candidates Plead With INEC, Police

AHEAD of next Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State, candidates have begged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Police to ensure the poll was not compromised by their personnel.

The candidates spoke at a stakeholders meeting the INEC held with all the 17 governorship candidates and parties participating in the election as well as security agencies, in Akure, yesterday.

Promising to ensure that their supporters conduct themselves in an orderly manner before and after the election, they appealed to the electoral commission and the police not to compromise the exercise.

Their appeal came as the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun; and INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, declared their readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible election.

We Are Fully Prepared – mahmood

Mahmood said the commission would be “deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, and warned staff that “there will be consequences for dereliction of duty in any way or form.”

On the preparedness of the electoral umpire, Yakubu said that electoral activities implemented include voters registration and collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and “two days ago, we uploaded to our website detailed information on the number of collected and uncollected PVCs for each of the 3,933 polling nits in Ondo State.”

He continued: “In the information booklet distributed at this meeting, you will also see the number as well as distribution of the 2,053,061 registered voters by Local Government Area, gender, age, occupation and disability.

“You will also see the list of candidates, including names published by Court order. We conducted a series of stakeholders’ meetings at the national, State and Local Government levels, including meetings with the security agencies.

111 Organisations, 700 Journalists, 3,554 Observers Accredited

“The Commission has accredited 111 domestic and international organisations deploying 3,554 observers for the election.

“We have also accredited over 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.

“Let me reassure stakeholders that INEC is ready for the election. 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.

“We have sufficient machines for the election which have been configured for voter accreditation and the upload of results distinct from those used for mock accreditation and training. 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 Will Improve On Success Recorded In Edo – IGP

Also, speaking at the meeting, IGP Egbetokun, who was represented by AIG, zone 17, Abiodun Asabi, said “ the Nigeria Police, apart from additional manpower from sister agencies, is going to deploy a total of 22,239 officers for the exercise.”

He appealed to “all stakeholders to eschew violence, avoid the do-or-die approach, don’t employ thuggery and play the game according to the rules with sportsmanship spirit that will enable the loser to lose gallantly and the winner to be magnanimous in victory. It should be stated that violators of electoral laws run the risk of diligent prosecution may win tomorrow- there is always hope for the at loses today.

He assured: “On our part as security agencies, we promise to leave no stone unturned in order to provide hitch-free, and conducive atmosphere prior, during and the post election security at the conclusion of the process.