The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says some local government areas easily prone to violence during Saturday elections have been identified in Oyo state.
Rahmon Tella, the state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), disclosed this on Tuesday while featuring at a guest forum tagged: “Speak Out”, organised by the Oyo State Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Mr Tella said INEC had developed some strategies to be embarked upon within those flashpoints.
According to him, this will form the basis for how security will be beefed up during the day of the election.
“What we consider necessary and achievable is the teamwork that has been really experienced among the security agencies in the state,” he said.
Mr Tella said parts of the measures implemented to address the security challenges included the identification of security personnel through the use of tags and banning of politicians from moving with security agents.
“A situation where candidates of political parties will be moving around with security agents would not be allowed.
“Operationalising of no other movement during the election day forms part of what the security agencies are coming up with on the day of the election.
“There will be no vehicular movement and movement of people all around, except those really concerned to partake in the election activities.
“Other security strategies include the establishment of situation room to monitor all activities in the respective local government areas and polling units on that day to ensure that election activities go on unhindered,” he said.
Mr Tella said the military personnel that would be deployed for the election would ensure that all neighbouring states that share a border with the state are manned fully to prevent the influx of political thugs and suspected criminals.
He further said that the commission has successfully trained some of the ad hoc staff that would be used for the 2023 general elections in the state.
Mr Tella said that the commission had also deployed some non-sensitive materials to the respective local government areas in the state.
The REC said the sensitive materials would be distributed on Friday in the presence of security agencies, media and political parties.
He put the total number of registered voters in the state as 3, 276,675, while the total number of polling units in the state were 6,390.
The REC put the total number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) collected in the state at 2, 305,903, while the uncollected PVC figures were 760,766.
