INEC creates 3,379 additional voting units in Osun

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission has created additional 3,379 voting points in the state to ensure quick accreditation of voters during the August 9 governorship election.

Agbaje, who said this at a press briefing in Osogbo on Friday said the state had 3,010 polling units before the new addition.

The REC also warned members of the National Youth Service Corps and officials of the commission against allowing themselves to be compromised by politicians.

He said anybody caught engaging in any act which violates the Electoral Law would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

Agbaje, while assuring the people of the state of the readiness of INEC added that the commission would conduct an election which would be acceptable not only to the people and international observers but also to the candidates and their parties.

The REC said, “We have distributed non-sensitive electoral materials

to the 30 Local Government Area offices of the commission for effective and timely preparation at the local government area offices.

“The commission has created 3,379 voting points to accelerate the process of accreditation and voting.

“We have recruited 10,432 ad hoc staff members. These ad hoc staff were sourced from the National Youth Service Corps; serving corps members in Osun, Ekiti, Kwara, Oyo, Ondo and Kogi states. Also, students of Federal Polytechnic, Ede and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and staff of federal establishments in Osun State.

“Any corps member or other categories of INEC staff caught in any unlawful act will be disowned and be handed over to the police.”

He explained that the state had 3,010 polling units but INEC decided to split some units which had about 1,500 registered voters into three to ensure that all voting points had an average of 500 voters. This, he said, would ensure that voters were quickly attended to and ensure easy voting.

He stated that out of 1,407,222 persons who registered as voters, 960,124 had collected their permanent voter cards and would be eligible to vote while 450,560 had yet to collect theirs.

According to him, 745,828 representing 53 per cent of the total registered voters are females while 661,394 which is 47 per cent of the voters are males.

Agbaje debunked the allegation that the commission was collaborating with the Peoples Democratic Party to manipulate the election in favour of Senator Iyiola Omisore.

He said that INEC had no favourite among the contestants while urging the people of the state to vote according to their conscience.

He also said that INEC would supply enough election materials to all the voting centres stating that this was the reason for the creation of a registration area centre where officials of the commission would camp on the eve of the election. He said the essence of this was to ensure early distribution of materials on the D-Day.

He said that the commission and security agencies were collaborating to ensure that there was no violence and that security of voters and INEC officials was guaranteed.

He said that there would be no additional security for new voting centres because they would be within the vicinity of the existing polling units.