INEC will use 8,000 corps members for Osun gov poll- REC

The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that more than 8,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps serving in Osun State will be deployed as ad hoc staff in the conduct of the September 22 governorship poll holding in the state.

The Resident Electoral Commissioners in the state, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, said this at a meeting by ‘Vote not Fight’ group which was organised by 2Baba Foundation; Kimpact Foundation, Youngsters Foundation, and some foreign non-governmental organisations.

He said the INEC was determined to ensure that the Osun State governorship election was transparent, free, fair and credible, saying the commission would give all contestants and political parties equal treatment.

Agbaje said, “Over 8,000 corps members are part of the expected 15,000 ad-hoc staff who are going to use for the conduct of the September governorship election.

“We have already sourced for over 90 per cent of the ad hoc staff we are going to be requiring for the election and most of them are from the higher institutions around.”

The REC stated that the commission registered a total number of 1, 677, 384 voters as against 1, 407, 000 of 2014 but said out of these persons, 1, 144, 273, representing 68.5 per cent had collected their permanent voter cards while there were still 524, 251 uncollected cards.

He urged on the electorate to go out and collect their PVCs because nobody would be allowed to vote without the PVC.

The REC said, “We want to improve on the 2014 performance. We want to start by 8 am in all polling units across all local government areas of the state. This time around accreditation and voting would be done simultaneously.

“I want to also implore the electorate to eschew any attempt to bribe or accept bribe from anyone during the poll because that is a violation of the Electoral Act and anyone who does that would be arrested and prosecuted.”