The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has expressed its readiness for the conduct of the Osun state gubernatorial election bail for 16th of July, 2022.
The chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu stated this at a special meeting of the Inter-agecny Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES at the National headquarters of the Commission in Abuja.
The meeting came barely four weeks after a similar meeting was held on 3rd June 2022 to review the security arrangement for the recently concluded Ekiti State Governorship election.
According to the Chairman, the successes recorded during the Ekiti state election was due to the synergy between the Commission and the security agencies. While noting that they must continue to build on the success of the Ekiti experience to ensure improved performance in subsequent elections, including the 2023 General Election.
“On our part, all the major activities that are supposed to be carried out at this stage have been successfully undertaken. The Commission is deploying a readiness assessment team to Osun State next week to assess our preparations for the elections.”
The Chairman also noted that as part of its preparations, the commission will be visiting some INEC Local Government offices in the State, hold meetings with our staff, briefing the Council of Traditional rulers to solicit the support of their Royal Majesties for peaceful elections and meet with the security agencies and transporters.
“We will also observe the mock accreditation of voters in some Polling Units across the three Senatorial Districts of the State to test the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). A few days to the election, we will return to Osun State to meet with the stakeholders and for the signing of the Peace Accord by political parties and candidates under the auspices of the National Peace Committee, he said.
On the of vote buying during the Ekiti state election, the Chairman said it appreciated the role played by the anti-corruption and security agencies in apprehending some of the perpetrators of this brazen assault on our democracy.
He said that the Commission is working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure the prosecution of persons arrested in the recent Ekiti Governorship election.
” Action will commence as soon as the EFCC completes its investigation. I appeal to all security agencies to continue to join hands with the Commission to tackle this menace”.
The Chairman also used the opportunity to reassure all Nigerians who applied for the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents arising from the recent party congresses, primaries and nomination of candidates that all requests are being attended to expeditiously despite the huge quantities of documents involved.
