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The Inspector-General of Police
The Chairman of IPAC in Ondo State
The Chairmen of Political Parties
The candidates and their running mates
National Commissioners of INEC
The REC for Ondo State
The Commissioner of Police, Ondo State
Members of ICCES
Traditional and Religious Leaders
Election Observers
Media Organisations
Other invited guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this stakeholders’ meeting. As most of you are aware, it has been the tradition that a stakeholders’ meeting of this nature is convened on the eve of major off-cycle Governorship elections to interact with political parties and candidates as well as accredited election observers, the media and other stakeholders on the preparations for the election. In particular, the Police, as the lead agency in internal security including elections will address us on the security preparations for the elections while I will address you on the electoral preparations. Together, we will respond to issues and concerns you may wish to raise.
As you are all aware, the Ondo State Governorship election is holding next weekend. With eight days to the election, we have only two outstanding activities listed in our Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election. These are the last day of campaign by political parties which, according to law, ends 24 hours before the date fixed for the elections i.e. at midnight on Thursday 14th November 2024 and Election Day on Saturday 16th November 2024.
We have similarly implemented other electoral activities, including voter registration and collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) as stated by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in her welcome address. Two days ago, we uploaded to our website detailed information on the number of collected and uncollected PVCs for each of the 3,933 Polling Units in Ondo State. In the information booklet distributed at this meeting, you will also see the number as well as distribution of the 2,053,061 registered voters by Local Government Area, gender, age, occupation and disability. You will also see the list of candidates, including names published by Court order. We conducted a series of stakeholders’ meetings at the national, State and Local Government levels, including meetings with the security agencies.
The 2024 Ondo State Governorship election is not just a national election, it is also of global interest. The Commission has accredited 111 domestic and international organisations deploying 3,554 observers for the election. We have also accredited over 100 radio, television, newspaper and online media organisations deploying about 700 personnel, including 129 female journalists, the largest number for any off-cycle Governorship elections in Nigeria. We have also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties for all the polling and collation locations across the State. I want to assure you that the accreditation cards for all categories of stakeholders are ready. Our State office here in Akure will soon commence the distribution of accreditation tags, including election duty vehicle stickers.
In our various engagements with the security and law enforcement agencies, we underscored the importance of providing security during the election to guarantee personal safety and protection of observers, the media, our own officials (both regular and ad hoc staff), service providers such as transporters and, above all, the citizens that will vote during the election. I am glad that the relevant agencies have given us the necessary assurances of security during the election, including unimpeded access to voting and collation locations for observers and the media. We will hear more from the representative of the Inspector-General of Police shortly.
Let me reassure stakeholders that INEC is ready for the election. We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. Only yesterday, we conducted mock accreditation in 12 polling units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of the State. The purpose was to test-run our deployment of technology to safeguard the credibility of the election. I am glad to report that the mock was successful and the result can be viewed on the IReV portal. But let me also quickly add that the machines used for the mock accreditation and the training of officials will not be used on Election Day. We have sufficient machines for the election which have been configured for voter accreditation and the upload of result distinct from those used for mock accreditation and training.
So, let me summarise what we have done so far to ensure the success of the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election holding next week. We engaged several times with stakeholders at the national level and here in Ondo State. We have made every information about the election available to Nigerians. We have published the list of candidates, the number registered voters and the number of PVCs collected by polling units. We have made available the locations of voting and collation centres across the State. We have accredited observers and media organisations for the election. We have also accredited polling and collation agents and made the details public. On Tuesday this week, we visited many of our Local Government offices to assess their readiness for the election. We have test-run our election technology in preparation for the Election Day. We are deploying enough technical support staff to address any challenges that may occur. We have made arrangements for land and maritime transportation of personnel and materials. We have arranged for the delivery of sensitive materials for the election to arrive as early as Tuesday next week. We will invite political parties and other stakeholders for the usual inspection of the materials at the Central Bank here in Akure and throughout the movement of sensitive materials to the Local Governments and the Ward centres. We have warned our staff that there will be consequences for dereliction of duty in any way or form. Tomorrow afternoon, I am going to address the staff, including the Electoral Officers from the 18 Local Government Areas.
As you are aware, election is a multi-stakeholder activity. INEC has a role to play and we have done so always in consultation with stakeholders. However, our role has to be complemented by all stakeholders. I urge Political parties to continue to restrain your supporters from any disruptive behaviour. We have produced accreditation tags for all your agents bearing their names, photographs and location of deployment. We have also added a QR code to the tags that can be read even from mobile phone applications. The practice of issuing party tags without name, photograph or location of posting to party agents must stop. That is how in some polling and collation locations, we have impersonators where two or more people claim to be agents of one Political Party, sometimes resulting in unnecessary disagreement among themselves or with agents of other parties leading to disruption of processes. I urge Political Parties to follow the example of other accredited observers and the media by using the tags issued by the Commission and displaying the same at all voting and collation locations.
Before I conclude, I would like to remind you that tomorrow, Friday 8th November 2024, the Peace Accord involving parties and candidates will be signed at 10.00am at this venue. Our respected former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar GCFR, will preside over the occasion in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Peace Committee. I invite you to honour the Peace Committee by your presence here tomorrow and, most importantly, abide by the terms of the Accord for a peaceful election.
I once again welcome you to the stakeholders’ meeting for the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election. I thank you and God bless.
