Ondo Election: KDI identifies flashpoints in five LGs

The Kimpa Development Initiative (KDI) has identified five local council areas of Ondo State as potential flashpoints during Saturday’s governorship election.

Raising security concerns a few hours before the poll, the non-governmental organisation urged security agencies to swiftly act on the intelligence.

According to the Executive Director of KDI, Mr. Bukola Idowu, while briefing newsmen during a pre-election news conference in Akure, the state capital, the flashpoints are Akoko South-East, Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo, Ilaje, Ese-Odo, and Idanre local government areas of the state.

He said, “These are potential flashpoints that we think security agencies need to look into and have adequate deployment.

“And most especially, either process must be intact, adequate, and top-notch in those areas.”

While commending the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its level of preparation for the poll, Idowu said, “We are watching to see how that preparation will translate to the actual execution on election day. And then we are looking at that in like about four major areas.”

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According to him, security agencies should also consider the post-election situation.

He added, “We don’t expect any issue around violence, but we expect that post-election issues should be handled differently and professionally.

“And we are saying now that the security agencies and all stakeholders need to find a means of handling it well.”

He stated that punitive measures should be put in place to address vote trading, noting that voter education seemed not to have yielded meaningful results.