Election
By David Adeoye
Ibadan, May 11, 2018(NAN) Ahead of May 12, 2018 council poll in Oyo State, the State Independence Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) says elections will take place in 4,783 polling booths and 5,260 voting points in the 610 wards across the state.
The Chairman of OYSIEC, Mr John Ajeigbe, disclosed this on Friday at a news conference organised by the commission in collaboration with Forum of Civil Society Organisation.
Ajeigbe said the commission recruited and trained 10,000 ad hoc staff for the exercise.
He added that the ad hoc staff would complement staff of the commission to conduct credible and successful election.
According to him, all non sensitive election materials have been distributed to secretariats of commission in the 33 local government areas and the 35 local council development areas in the state.
He explained that “we have moved sensitive materials from CBN where they were kept to the commission’s state headquarters and will soon begin distributing them for onward movement to council areas and LCDAs.”
The chairman said accreditation and voting would go on simultaneously and ruled out the use of card readers.
On security matter, Ajeigbe assured eligible voters that security operatives would be on ground for their safety.
He said 12 political parties would participate in the election, namely: Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party(ANRP), National Rescue Movement(NRM) and Young Progressive Party(YPP).
Others are People for Democratic Change(PDC), Kowa Party(KP), African Peoples Alliance(APA), Justice Must Prevail Party(JMPP) and All Progressives Congress(APC).
Action Democratic Party(ADP), United Democratic Party(UDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance(PPA) and Socialist Party of Nigeria( SPN) were also participating in the election.
The OYSIEC boss urged eligible voters to abide by the rules governing the conduct of the election.
Meanwhile, 12 Civil Society Organisations, including two foreign and 10 domestic groups, would serve as observers for the Saturday council poll.
Mrs Yemisi Ige, the Team Leader, Forum of CSOs, told newsmen that pre-election observation indicated that the state government had provided necessary logistics for OYSIEC to organise and conduct credible poll without interference.
She urged participating political parties to cooperate with OYSIEC to have successful election.(NAN)
DAK/HA
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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu