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With few days to Saturday’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Oyo State on Wednesday began distribution of sensitive materials.
The exercise, which took place at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dugbe Ibadan, was supervised by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo State and the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 11 Command in charge of Oyo and Osun.
The materials were distributed in the presence of party agents and the commission’s officials across the thirty-three local government areas of the state.
Speaking, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo State, Mr Tela Adeniran
, explained that the commission had built on what obtained in the processes of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections to ensure free, fair and verifiable exercise in the Saturday’s poll.
“It is a tradition that we normally move our materials particularly the sensitive materials to the local governments, from the local governments to the RAC centres, to the polling units.
“This is usually being done at the instance of the security, because the security agencies are critical stakeholders in the electoral process, and it is evident in the last election where the activities were greatly influenced by the security agents.
“We have 33 local governments and we have watched and distributed our materials down, most especially the ballot paper that are meant for the Governorship and State Assembly elections and this has been properly and systematically outlined so that there won’t be a mix up.
“We have 351 registration centres where all the security parties will man.
“All the BVAS have been properly configured and charged, we have 124 BVAS on ground and another 406 as back up,” Adeniran stated.
On his part, the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 11 Command in charge of Oyo and Osun, Mr Sikiru Akande who noted that the police partnered the INEC to ensure a itch free election, cautioned party agents and unscrupulous elements to steer clear of any act that could jeopardize the smooth running of the exercise.