Osun 2014: INEC plans to deploy heavy security in Osun, says REC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it was planning heavy security presence during the August 9 governorship election in Osun State as was the case during a similar election held on June 21 in Ekiti State.

The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Segun Agbaje, who spoke in Abuja Wednesday, said the decision was informed by the heightening security situation in the state, arising from the unfriendly utterances of the major political players.

“There will be improved security deployment. I cannot say the level of security deployment in Osun will be less than that of Ekiti. This is because of the utterances of the political leaders and the heavy threat of violence,” he said.

The REC said, of the 1,407,222 total registered voters in the state, INEC has distributed permanent voter card (PVC) to 63 per cent, translating to 792,200 of the registered voters. He said 1,250,569 of such PVC were received from the INEC headquarters as at July 11.

Agbaje said 19 candidates have been cleared to contest the election as at today. He said no voter will be allowed to cast ballot without PVC. He assured that as against the case in Ekiti, any voter with valid voter’s card will be allowed to vote.

He spoke at an event tagged “Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room,” a platform provided by a group, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) for civil society organistions to assess the level of INEC’s preparedness for the Osun election.

The REC, who said his commission will engage in its final phase of PVC distribution on July 26 and 27, assured that INEC has done all it can to ensure that the Osun election serves as an improvement on the Ekiti poll and a prelude to the perfect job it envisages in 2015.

“The Anambra case was not as bad as being portrayed.  If Ekiti is said to have been an improvement, we want to build on that improvement with the Osun election to ensure that we have the best in 2015,” he said.

Agbaje said aside security challenge; INEC was working on ways of overcoming the challenge of the prevailing political culture of violence in the state. He said aside that all the politicians see election as a do or die affair, the

He said although non-sensitive electoral materials have been deployed since Thursday last week, the commission will allow the release of the sensitive materials from the state’s branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from August 6.

Agbaje said about 7,000 mats have been ordered to complement available bedding facilities provided in all the Registration Areas Centres (RACs) to afford INEC officials the minimum comfort preparatory to their deployment to the field.  (thenationonlineng)