The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Wednesday sought stronger support from the Nigerian Armed Forces to address logistics challenges ahead of the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections as well as the 2023 general election.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the call when he led a team of National Commissioners and other top management staff of the commission on a visit to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal, Isiaka Oladayo Amao, at the Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, Abuja.
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“On 25th February and 11th March 2023, the commission will deploy personnel and materials to about 190,000 voting and collation locations nationwide for 1,491 executive and legislative offices across Nigeria.
“These activities must take place simultaneously, stretching over 923,768km2 within a space of six voting hours (8:30am-2:30pm) involving a projected population of 90 million voters.
“There is no time to waste, as the 2023 general elections are only 261 days from today.”
“However, the Ekiti State governorship election is holding in the next 10 days on Saturday 18th June while the Osun governorship election holds in 38 days on Saturday 16th July 2022.
“We’ll seek the support of the Air Force in handling the delivery of outstanding election materials to the two states while the Commission bears responsibility for all subsequent deployment within the states to the local government areas and beyond as has been the practice,” Yakubu said.
Responding, the Chief of Air Staff said the Air Force was preparing its transport aircraft to assist INEC with its set objective.
He said a bilateral committee would be set up immediately to look into the request of the commission for effective election logistics delivery.
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