By Halimah Olamide
The Independent National Electoral Commission is set to deploy 5,000 Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS) today (Thursday) ahead of the upcoming Edo State governorship election
NPO reports that the election is scheduled for Saturday.
Sensitive materials, including ballot papers and result sheets, arrived in Edo State on Wednesday via Benin Airport and were transported to secure storage facilities under tight security.
NPO reports that all campaigns are to end today.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Senator Monday Okpebholo, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) are the leading contenders ahead of the ballot.
INEC officials and security personnel supervised the transportation of the election materials to ensure accountability.
“More than 5,000 BVAS devices will be deployed for the Edo State governorship election. BVAS is a sensitive election material. It will be deployed tomorrow (today) with other sensitive materials,” one of the INEC officials disclosed.
INEC is preparing to ensure a smooth and efficient electoral process across the state’s 4,519 polling units and 211 collation centres, which include 192 ward centres, 18 local government collation centres, and the state collation centre in Benin City.
As part of its preparation for the polls, INEC has increased its financial support to transport unions for the election logistics.
Additionally, the commission has been engaging with various stakeholders ranging from political parties and civil society groups to community leaders—to ensure that the electoral process is transparent and inclusive.
It was further learnt that the commission would deploy more than 18,000 ad-hoc staff for the poll.
Based on INEC’s staffing structure, each of the 4,519 polling units in Edo State will require a team of four officers, comprising a Presiding Officer and three Assistant Presiding Officers (APO I, II, and III), totaling 18,076 ad-hoc staff.
In addition to the POs and APOs, INEC will also dispatch Supervisory Presiding Officers to manage operations at various polling units across the state.
In a move to ensure a hitch-free exercise, the Nigeria Police Force has announced that it is expecting over 8,000 security personnel from other agencies to join the 35,000 officers already deployed for the Edo State governorship election.