Yakubu
…Identifies 16 areas for improvement
…IG warns violence mongers, says 33,783 personnel ‘ll be deployed
…Stakeholders to sign accord today, Abdulsalami c’ttee sues for peace
By Dayo Johnson & Chris Ochayi
THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has identified 16 lapses in the Edo governorship election that will be addressed during the October 10 poll in Ondo State.
INEC National Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said this at a stakeholders meeting in Akure, the state capital.
Yakubu said that ‘’Edo was a success and we must not go lower but improve on it. Ondo is going to be better than Edo. The Commission has reviewed the last Governorship election in Edo State. We are determined to continue improving on our performance. For this reason, we identified 16 areas of improvement, including logistics, prompt response to Smart Card Reader hitches on Election Day, the menace of vote-buying during elections and compliance with COVID-19 protocols.’’
Yakubu assured that votes would count in the Ondo election, saying: “Our commitment is to ensure that the choice of who becomes the next governor of Ondo State is entirely in the hands of the voters. I wish to assure all eligible voters that every vote will count and only the choice made by the people of Ondo State will determine the outcome of the election.
“I want to assure political parties and candidates that we will remain focused on our processes and procedures. Let me reiterate to all stakeholders that the Commission will not take any action to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate.
“To further underscore our commitment to a credible and transparent electoral process in Nigeria, the Commission introduced the z-pad to upload polling unit level results on a dedicated portal.
“This technology was first deployed in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election and, most recently, in the Edo State Governorship election. The same technology will be deployed for the Ondo State Governorship election this Saturday.’’
The chairman appealed “to all political parties, candidates and their supporters for peaceful conduct.
“The Commission is determined that no one will benefit from impunity or be rewarded for bad behaviour such as vote-buying, ballot box snatching and stuffing, multiple voting, hijacking and diversion of election materials, disruption of collation, falsification of results, attack on INEC officials or compelling them to declare unofficial results.
“The people of Ondo State must be allowed to freely vote for their preferred candidate without inducement or harassment. We have been assured by the security agencies that thugs and their sponsors will not have the freedom to move around freely to disrupt the election or collation of results.
“l must quickly add that the Smart Card Readers will also be deployed for voter verification and authentication. This is a mandatory requirement and where they are deliberately avoided to undermine the integrity of the electoral process, the result for the affected polling unit will be declared void in line with the Commission’s regulations and guidelines,’’ he stated.
Peace accord
The chairman said that the National Peace Committee under the leadership of our former Head of State General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar will today in Akure, the state capital sign a Peace Accord with political parties and candidates.
In a statement, yesterday, General Abubakar sued for peace and urged all stakeholders to live up to the principles of impartiality, neutrality and statesmanship.
We ‘ll deploy 33,783 police personnel
Speaking at the same event, the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, said 33,783 police personnel would be on election security duty during the election.
“To mitigate the identified threats, we shall be deploying, aside our intelligence assets, a total of 33,783 police personnel on election security duty in Ondo State. This will comprise of 30,933 conventional police personnel and 2,850 Special Police Units.
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“The Police deployment will be complemented by an additional 3,500 manpower that will be drawn from other security agencies.
“The Military will be engaged for the purpose of securing the inter-state borders while the Nigeria Police Airwing will provide air surveillance.
“These personnel shall be deployed to adequately secure the 3,009 Polling Units (PUs) in 203 Wards spread over the 18 Local Government Areas of the State. They are to protect the personnel and assets of the Independent National Electoral Commission, the electorates, and residents of Ondo State in general before, during and after the elections.
“The rationale for these deployments is purposeful and strategic. We are drawing from the experiences garnered in the recently concluded election and pro actively responding to the outcome of the intelligence analysis arising from our election threat assessment of Ondo State governorship election.
The deployment he added “is equally to deny misguided political actors that might be bent on threatening the elections through acts that are inimical to the dictates of the Electoral Act, the pleasure of manifesting their ignoble traits.
“We are, by the deployment, sending strong warning that the Nigeria Police and other security agencies are resolute to bring recalcitrant characters threatening the process to justice no matter their status in the society or political affiliation.
“There have been pockets of violent attacks by political opponents against each other in some areas in the state particularly in Akoko and Ipele axis.
“As condemnable as these incidents are, because electioneering campaigns are avenues for the candidates to market their manifestos to the electorates and not arenas of conflicts, it would appear that those bent on causing political crises in the state are clearly testing our collective will to decisively deal with such threats.”
“It is on that note that I hereby warn violence mongers to immediately desist from’ their uncharitable deviant activities or be prepared to face the consequences.’’
Calling on all the political parties to embrace the virtues of democracy by seeing elections as a call to service of the people and not ‘a-do or-die’ affair, he implored parents and guardians to counsel their children and wards to resist the unprofitable urge of being recruited by any politician for thuggery and other acts of violence.
The Police Chief reassured the political parties and Ondo people that the Nigeria Police and other security agencies involved in the conduct of this election are determined to ensure that the poll will ‘’be free, fair, credible, and conducted in a safe and secure environment.’’
