The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ekiti State through the Acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) who also doubles as the Administrative Secretary (AS), Dr. Muslim Omoleke has publicly revealed the total number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) so far collected in the state by eligible voters to be 675,119 while a total of 245,908 Permanent Voters Cards are yet to be collected by the people of the state ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections scheduled for this week Saturday, the 16th of February, 2019.
Dr. Muslim Omoleke made this information known to the people of Ekiti State at the 2019 general elections stakeholder’s meeting held in Ado Ekiti in preparation for the poll in the state.
He informed the gathering that INEC is learning from the mistakes and errors of the past and has been able to update and enhanced both the software and hardware components of the smart card readers that will be deployed for the accreditation of voters during the election.
He used the opportunity to equally assure stakeholder’s in the state present at the meeting that the cases of the malfunctioning and failure of the smart card readers (SCR) experienced during the previous elections has been properly and effectively addressed by the commission and brought to a halt.
Omoleke speaking further said: “the use of the incident forms will no longer be operational and electorates will not be permitted to enter into the polling unit where cubicles are placed with their mobile phones so as to reduce, discourage and put an end to vote buying and selling in the country’s electoral system.
As part of the preparation for the 2019 general elections, three (3) copies of the voters register have been printed (2 copies in black and white and 1 copy in colour).
The commission has also concluded the training and recruitment of ad-hoc staffs that will be used during the elections. A total number of 9,973 ad-hoc staffs will be used for the conduct of the elections in Ekiti State.
It is also worthy of note that the commission has engaged itself in dispatching of nearly all the non – sensitive materials brought from the INEC Headquarters in Abuja to the 16 local government areas in the state and to all the RACs and polling units across the state”.
Dr. Muslim Omoleke, also submitted that the total number of voting points are 2,445; total number of polling units as 24, 495; the overall total number of registered voters also given as 909, 967; a total of 6,000 NYSC members will serve as ad-hoc staffs apart from the officials of the Federal Institutions and Establishments in the state. He advised the political parties’ agents to make themselves available when the commission in the state will be distributing the election materials later in the week before the Saturday election to the appropriate polling units across the state.
The highlights of the stakeholder’s meeting was when the political parties representatives totaling 22 in all were called upon to publicly sign a Peace Accord thereby committing themselves to ensuring that the Saturday election will be violence free and peaceful in the state. The lists of the various political parties present to sign the Peace Accord included ADC, ADP, ANN, ASD, DA, APC, DPP, ID, JMPP, KOWA, Labour Party, NAC, NCP, NDLP, PDP, People’s Trust, SDP, YDP, ZLP as well as the officials of the ECOWAS Observers Groups already present in the state ahead of the Saturday election.
The Acting REC/Administrative Secretary said the only thing that is going to be secret in the coming election is the secrecy and the sanctity of the ballots.
He promised that apart from the secrecy and sanctity of the ballots system, every other process in the election will be very clear, open, fair, free and transparent to the voters and the members of the public. The representatives of the Police Commissioner (Mr. Amba Asuquo) in the state, Mr. Samuel Etaifo Erale told the gathering that the security officials to be at the polling units have been increased from two (2) to four (4). Etaifo blamed the problems of vote buying on the politicians and absolved the Nigerian Police Force of such weighty allegations.
Equally present at the stakeholders’ meeting were the following: Dr. Muslim Omoleke, the Acting REC and Administrative Secretary of the INEC in Ekiti State who also represented the National Commissioner in charge of Osun/Ekiti/Oyo States, Prince Adedeji Soyebi; the HODs of Operations, ICT, VEP, EPM as well as that of the Legal Departments. Others included the representatives of the Director of DSS in Ekiti State, Mr. Halilu Musa; the Director of NYSC in Ekiti State; the State Chairman of IPAC in Ekiti State and that of the State Commandant of the NDCDC.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
