INEC, security agencies deploy 22, 603 personnel for polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in collaboration with the Nigeria Police, is to deploy 22,603 personnel for the polls in Edo.

This is coming as part of the efforts by the authorities to ensure adequate logistics and other security arrangements.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike, disclosed this yesterday at an Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security held at the INEC’s headquarters, Abuja.

He said the deployment was outside the several officers and men to be contributed by other security agencies.

Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Sam Olumekun disclosed that 1,925,105 voters registered for the election.

Giving a breakdown, he said the state has 18 local council areas, six of which are in the riverine areas. He explained there are 192 wards, 2,627 polling units and 4,011 voting points in the state.

Olumekun added that in accordance with Section 46 of the Electoral Act, as amended, the public was served with the notice of the election on June 1, while the notice of polls was published on August 27.

He said the distribution of the old Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) was done simultaneously with the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) between June 22 and 26.

According to him, the distribution of PVCs is ongoing at the local government offices, adding those new voters, numbering135, 877 registered during the exercise, but over 400,000 PVCs had been collected.

Olumekun further explained that both the publication of the voters’ register and the presentation of soft copies to political parties took place on August 11.

To fulfill the provisions of Section 87 of the Electoral Act, he said, the congresses of political parties were monitored between June 2 and July 4.