The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has distributed sensitive materials to all 18 local government areas of Ondo State ahead of the Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
Oluwatoyin Babalola, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo State, who monitored the exercise, held at Akure branch of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) assured the residents of the state, political parties and all stakeholders of the commission’s readiness to conduct transparent, free and fair election.
Particularly, Babalola noted that the early distribution of the sensitive materials was to show that the commission was ready for the election, promising that the commission would be transparent in the conduct of the election.
She said; “You can see that the distribution exercise is going on very smoothly. The farthest local governments have started moving to their local governments. All the other local governments, they have received their materials, they are checking and they are loading the vehicles.
“I’m sure in another one and a half hours, we should be out of it. You can see the logistics we are distributing today and this is just 10 minutes after 12PM, the vehicles are already moving. Ilaje has left, Ese-Odo has left, Okitipupa and Irele are loading. They will soon leave.
“Then we move to the next set, Akoko North-East, North-West, Akoko South-West, South-East, Owo and Ose they have collected all their materials and they will leave any moment from now.
“Then Odigbo, Ondo-East, Ondo-West, Ifedore, Axis, they are leaving. We are on course. We are moving. The movement is not local government by local government. We are doing simultaneous movement.
“The difficult terrain on water, they are in Ilaje and Ese-Odo and we have identified those areas and we are going to have boats that will transport men and materials. We also have the support of the Navy. They are giving us gunboats to secure the movement.
“For the land where we have difficult terrain, we will move out to the place where vehicle can reach and we will continue the rest with suitable means of transportation.”
While appealing to the political parties to eschew violence on the election day, the REC said that the sensitive materials were being distributed to ensure that no ward or polling unit was committed or does not get materials for the election.
The Chairman of APC in the state, Ade Adetumehin and the State Chairman of Inter -Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Adesanya Olaoluwa, commended the INEC for their transparency in the exercise saying all the parties was ready to cooperate with the commission.
BusinessDay reports that representatives of the political parties participating in the election and security agencies including the Police, NSCDC, FRSC, Immigration, Customs and DSS were at the venue of the exercise.