ABUJA — Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared total operational, technological, and logistical readiness for the upcoming governorship election in Ekiti State, scheduled for Saturday, 20 June.
The head of the commission, Professor Joash Amupitan, announced that the final voter register contains 1,059,360 legally verified citizens across the state’s 16 local government areas. This follows the removal of more than 2,000 duplicate entries detected by the commission’s automated biometric identification system.
Speaking at a major stakeholders’ forum in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, Mr. Amupitan stressed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be deployed across all 2,445 polling units as the sole means of authentication. He added that all polling-level results will be transmitted directly to the online INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) for real-time public verification.
“No PVC [Permanent Voter’s Card], no accreditation, and no voting,” Mr. Amupitan warned. “There will be no bypasses, and there will be no exceptions.”
The election chief also revealed that the commission has carried out detailed threat mapping alongside state security agencies to identify potential areas of political thuggery and ballot disruption. Anti-corruption officials from the EFCC and the ICPC will also be deployed to polling stations to combat vote-buying.
Addressing political leaders following a peace pact signed by all 13 contesting parties last month, Mr Amupitan said: “The Peace Accord must not be treated as a decorative ceremonial exercise. Its principles must be forcefully internalised and strictly observed down to your grassroots supporters.”
The commission has cleared 91 media organisations, deploying 675 journalists, alongside 98 domestic and international observer groups to monitor the vote.
Concurrent bye-elections
In addition to the high-stakes governorship race in Ekiti, INEC confirmed it will simultaneously conduct legislative bye-elections on 20 June across six other states: Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers, Ondo, Kano, and Kebbi.
“There is no dilution of institutional focus,” Prof. Amupitan assured, promising that the same rigorous technological safeguards and security arrangements would be applied uniformly across the country.
Earlier on Thursday, the INEC leadership held a separate strategic meeting with the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers, calling on royal fathers to use their community influence to preach peace and encourage voters to turn out early on election day.
Add Comment