Janet Samuel, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has tasked security agencies on early preparations for Edo and Ondo governorship elections, scheduled for Sept. 16 and Nov. 11 respectively.
INEC Chairman,, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the call at a quarterly meeting of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) on Friday, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Yakubu said it was important to start security preparations very early, adding that ,in particular, the number of personnel and other assets to be deployed to strategic locations should be determined and mobilised early enough.
“It was this proactive approach that led to the successful conduct of the last governorship election in Edo State on Sept. 19, 2020 and in Ondo State on Oct. 10, 2020.
He informed that, “There were no security incidents, materials were delivered promptly, logistics deployed smoothly, Polling Units opened on time, voters attended to efficiently and results collated and announced transparently.
“Let us replicate the successful conduct of the last governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
He noted that the essence of the meeting was to brief the various security agencies on the commission’s preparations and delimitation details for the two elections, to enable early preparations for security deployment.
In his remarks, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Co-Chair of ICCES, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, represented by the Director of Internal Security in the office of the (NSA), Hassan Abdullahi, assured Nigerians of peaceful conduct in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
He commended the professionalism of the security agencies in the lastcrerun and by-elections.conducted ny the commission.
Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun who was presented by the commissioner of Police in-charge of Election Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Basil Ideagwu, commended the performance of the security agencies in the last re-run and by elections.
While declaring their readiness ahead of the two off-cycle elections, , Egbetokun said “We are working with the states commands, we have identified all the flash points and we have continued to work on the threat profiles in the state to ensure that we deployed in line with what is required to ensure peaceful elections., said that the force had already identified flash points in the two states ahead of the governorship elections.
