Sensitive electoral materials have arrived in Osogbo ahead of Saturday’s Osun State governorship election as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) intensifies preparations for the August 15 poll.
The arrival of the materials coincides with heightened security arrangements across the state, with 25,310 personnel drawn from the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission deployed for the election.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, disclosed the commission’s preparations in an interview with newsmen.
According to Oketola, INEC would recruit its ad-hoc election officials from a pool of more than 30,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) available for the exercise.
He, however, declined to give the exact number of NYSC members that would eventually be deployed as ad-hoc personnel for the election.
“For number of ad-hoc staff, INEC will be pulling from a pool of over 30,000 NYSC members that we’re working with for the election,” he said.
The commission also put the number of registered voters in Osun State at 2,339,233.
Oketola, however, said he could not provide the latest figure of voters who had collected their Permanent Voter Cards following the extension of the PVC collection exercise.
He explained that while all 2,339,233 registered voters remained eligible to participate in the election, the updated number of collected PVCs was not immediately available.
“Meanwhile, 2,339,233 voters are registered in Osun. So, I’m not sure, you know, we extended PVC collection. I don’t have the data of the number of PVC collected,” he said.
With the arrival of sensitive materials and the deployment of thousands of security personnel, attention is now shifting to the final stages of preparations for Saturday’s election.
The election is expected to be keenly contested, with the incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party seeking another term against the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, and other contenders.
Nontheless, the commission and security agencies have continued to assure stakeholders of measures aimed at ensuring a peaceful, transparent and credible electoral process.
