Barrister Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Oyo state, Tuesday, revealed that no fewer than seven females and 53 males would contest the three senatorial seats in the state in the February 16 polls.
He made this known while addressing journalists on its preparedness for the forthcoming general elections, adding that 26 females out of 202 candidates would contest for the 14 Federal Constituencies of the state.
“In addition, six females out of 42 candidates will jostle for the gubernatorial seat while 17 political parties fielded females as deputy gubernatorial candidates.
“Regarding the House of Assembly in the state, there are 654 candidates and 49 political parties contesting for the 32 State Constituencies,” he posited.
Agboke reiterated that the commission has trained 351 Supervisory Presiding Officers and another 28,352 ad-hoc staff, which comprised Presiding Officers and Assistant Presiding Officers.
He revealed that an Oath form would be administered on all the categories of ad-hoc staff that are expected to participate in the elections maintaining that the commission has trained 351 Supervisory Presiding Officers and another 28,352 ad-hoc staff, which comprised Presiding Officers on all the categories of ad-hoc staff that were expected to participate in the elections.
He also promised to domesticate the MoU at the state level with the aim of achieving the same purpose adding that 2,116,229 PVCs have so far been collected while 846,417 PVCs remained unclaimed.
He said that the commission had a total of 7,336 Smart Card Readers available out of which 6,390 would be required to take care of 6,390 polling units in the state.
The Oyo state REC urged owners of unclaimed PVCs to use the few days remaining to collect them in order to enjoy the opportunity of voting.
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