#OsunDecides: We’re ready to deliver credible poll —REC •Says, ‘sensitive materials successfully tracked to 30 LGs’

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared its readiness to deliver a credible and acceptable governorship election in Osun State today to produce a successor to outgoing Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Olusegun Agbaje, made the declaration on Friday at a press conference held at the commission’s office in Osogbo, the state capital.

Agbaje said all the vehicles which conveyed sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the 30 local government areas of the state were successfully tracked to their destinations.

The REC, who was flanked by national officers of the commission, said: “INEC has put in place adequate preparation for the conduct of the Osun State governorship election on Saturday, 22nd of September, 2018 and as we speak, I can confidently say that the commission is fully ready to make the Osun State gubernatorial election a model that will be applauded by Nigerians and the international community.

“Production of a credible register of voters through a painstaking process that involved data consolidation, Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Business Rules for PVC, CVR and transfers, resulting in the registration of 807,598 (48 per cent) male and 874,897 (52 per cent) female, making a total of 1,682,495 registered voters in Osun State.”

He said enhancement of smart card readers had been completed for optimal performance, noting that “a total of 4,761 smart card readers will be used for the conduct of the election as follows: 1/PU= 3,010, 1/VP=755 and 3/RA=996 to serve as backup.”

On Wednesday’s movement of sensitive materials to the local government areas, Agbaje said: “The vehicles moved from the CBN to all LGAs and they got to their destinations very safely. They are property tracked from our headquarters here, we followed them and the vehicles also delivered safely. On the use of private vehicles, we only used them to carry our personnel.

“Our tracking devices were used for INEC vehicles, I mean, commission’s vehicles that carry sensitive materials and the card readers. They all moved together. Government cannot afford to buy all the vehicles needed for this election. So, we have to source for vehicles from outside. We used our vehicles that are properly tracked and the vehicles are going to be at those areas and they are the same ones that would bring the results back on Saturday.

“When we want to track the vehicles as they would be bringing results, maybe we would allow some media men into our facility to observe how these vehicles will move from there to this headquarters tomorrow night. The vehicles would remain in their destination with the security men that will follow them to the Registration Area Centre (RAC) this night to the Polling Units (PUs) tomorrow morning.”