Sensitive election materials have arrived in Osogbo ahead of Saturday’s Osun State governorship election, while more than 30,000 National Youth Service Corps members are available for deployment as ad-hoc staff.
The Independent National Electoral Commission confirmed that the sensitive materials, including ballot papers and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices, are being kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria facility in the state for security reasons.
INEC’s Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, said the commission would begin moving non-sensitive materials to local government areas and Registration Area Centres from Thursday, while sensitive materials would be moved on Friday.
He said the commission had a pool of more than 30,000 NYSC members from which ad-hoc personnel would be selected for the election.
A total of 2,339,233 voters are registered in Osun State, although INEC said it was yet to provide the updated figure of voters who collected their Permanent Voter Cards after the collection exercise was extended.
Meanwhile, 25,310 security personnel have been deployed across the state to secure the election.
The deployment includes 15,000 police officers, 10,210 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and about 100 operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The NSCDC also confirmed the deployment of 10,000 personnel from neighbouring state commands to reinforce security in Osun’s 30 local government areas.
The personnel will secure polling units, electoral officials, observers, journalists and residents, while specialised units have also been deployed for intelligence gathering, crime prevention and crowd control.
Fourteen political parties are contesting the August 15 governorship election, with incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party, APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji and ADC candidate Najeem Salam among the major contenders.
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