Ondo guber: Parties, candidates set to sign peace accord as Police deploy 33, 000 personnel

  The General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC) will on Tuesday commit political parties and their candidates participating in the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo state governorship election to a peace accord.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this, Monday, at a stakeholders’ meeting in Akure noted that the Peace committee has invited all political parties concerned to sign the accord.


He reaffirmed that the commission was determined to continue to improve on its  performance in Edo governorship election. 
On the preparedness for the Ondo governorship election, Yakubu stated that the Central Bank had as at Monday afternoon delivered all sensitive materials for the election to its Akure branch. 
The INEC boss also spoke on the fire incident that gutted the INEC office in Akure. 


“In response to the unfortunate fire incident last month in which we lost all our smart card readers in Ondo state, we have moved enough replacements from Oyo state and configured them for the election on Saturday. 
“We have made adequate arrangements with the Federal Fire Service to ensure that such incidents do not occur again,” he said.
He warned that “no one will benefit from impunity or be rewarded for bad behaviour such as vote-buying, ballot box snatching and stuffing, multiple voting, hijacking and diversion of election materials, disruption of collation, falsification of results, attack on INEC officials or compelling them to declare unofficial results.”
He stated that the people of Ondo state must be allowed to freely vote for their preferred candidate without inducement or harassment stressing that  security agencies have assured that thugs and their sponsors will not have the freedom to move around freely to disrupt the election or collation of results. 


Yakubu assured political parties and candidates that the commission will remain focused on its processes and procedures, warming that “the commission will not take any action to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate.”

The INEC chairman said the  commission “identified 16 areas of improvement, including logistics, prompt response to smart card reader glitches on election day, the menace of vote buying during elections and compliance with COVID-19 protocols.” 

He stated that INEC has engaged with land and maritime transport owners for forward and reverse logistics to and from land and riverine locations. 


According to him, “We have engaged additional 104 Registration Area Technical Support (RATECHS) staff to respond rapidly to issues with Card Readers on Election Day. 
“We had useful discussions with the security agencies and anti-corruption agencies on how to deal with vote buying during elections. Working with health authorities, we will continue to enforce safety measures at polling units, including the compulsory wearing of face masks and the provision of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as hand sanitizers and infra-red thermometers at polling locations and collation centres.” 
He appealed to all election officials, transport providers, polling agents, election observers and the media to ensure compliance with the advisory by health authorities.

According to the INEC chairman, all eligible voters will have equal opportunity to exercise their right to vote adding that “In order to ensure greater awareness and effective participation of all citizens in the electoral process, the commission is deploying magnifying glasses and braille ballot guides to assist Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to vote unaided.”
He further explained, “For this reason, the Commission has translated and published the policy on conducting elections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Voters’ Code of Conduct into braille. We have also produced posters to guide hearing-impaired voters.


 “To further underscore our commitment to a credible and transparent electoral process in Nigeria, the Commission introduced the z-pad to upload polling unit level results on a dedicated portal (INEC RESULT VIEWING – IReV). 
“This technology was first deployed in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election and, most recently, in the Edo State Governorship election. The same technology will be deployed for the Ondo State Governorship election this Saturday. 
“Anyone interested in viewing polling unit level result in real-time can simply visit our website (www.inecelectionresults.com) to register and create an account. So far, 58,229 viewers have registered on the portal as at Thursday last week. “I must quickly add that the Smart Card Readers will also be deployed for voter verification and authentication. This is a mandatory requirement and where they are deliberately avoided to undermine the integrity of the electoral process, the result for the affected polling unit will be declared void in line with the Commission’s regulations and guidelines.” He reiterated his appeal to all political parties, candidates and their supporters to conduct themselves peacefully during the election assuring them that votes will count. 


The INEC boss further said “Polling unit level results will be uploaded for public view. However, this will not happen where the process is disrupted by violence or malpractices.”
Also speaking, Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu stated that 33,000 police personnel have been deployed for the election on Saturday.

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