Ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, the Independent National Electoral Commission has distributed sensitive materials to its 30 local government offices in the state.
Party agents, journalists and election observers witnessed the distribution of the materials at INEC office in Osogbo, the state capital.
Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu Raji, said the sensitive materials were transported to INEC local government offices escorted by heavy security.
Raji said, “We took delivery of the sensitive materials midnight of Wednesday, and it has been with us for about 36 hours. The party agents have seen them. These materials have been under very heavy security since the day we brought them, and we also invited the party agents to witness the arrival, including the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) chairman.”
He disclosed that five national commissioners and 12 supporting RECs would be on ground, each of whom had been assigned to the local government they would supervise.
The INEC REC further said that some of the sensitive materials, like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had been loaded into vehicles for delivery to their destinations.
“Earlier today, we loaded the BVAS into the vehicles. The ballot papers will now be loaded and each local government vehicle will move out soon. We expect that in the next two to three hours, they will reach their destinations,” he added.
Raji further stated that the materials (ballot papers and result registers) had been customised according to the local governments and polling units.
The REC advised journalists to check the result sheets for his signature, saying any of such documents without his signature will not be considered authentic.