INEC plans to deploy 46,084 staff for Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi elections

Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi state will head to polls by November to elect their new Governors.

To achieve seamless electoral process, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC said it will deploy 46,084 regular and adhoc staff for the election.

Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu in a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja on Friday said the three elections will involve 5,409,438 registered voters that will vote in 10,510 polling units spread across 649 electoral Wards in 56 Local Government Areas.

He noted that so far, all non-sensitive materials for the election have been delivered to the three States.

Yakubu maintained that INEC has so far accredited 126 national and international organisations collectively deploying 11,000 observers for the election which is in three weeks..

“Although the portal for media accreditation closes on Tuesday 24th October 2023, we have received applications from 80 media organisations seeking to deploy 1,203 personnel made up of journalists and technical/support staff to report on the elections.

“The 18 political parties participating in the elections are deploying 137,934 agents made up of 130,093 polling and 7,841 collation agents. We are also finalizing arrangements for vehicles and boats for land and maritime movement of personnel and materials,” the INEC Chair said.

“On our part, we will continue to deepen our engagement with the security agencies and more meetings are planned in the next few days” He added