The Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Independent National Electoral Commission, Victoria Eta-Messi, has disclosed that the commission, in conjunction with security agencies, has intensified the security of voters at the various polling units in Osun State, as she noted that potential flashpoints have been identified at these centres.
She noted that while the pre-election atmosphere is tense in the state, the commission has intensified efforts to curb vote trading, as she severely warned against voter card theft.
Eta-Messi addressed these concerns during her interview on Arise TV’s ‘Prime Time’ show on Monday.
“Osun is tense. I don’t think it’s what citizens were expecting. There is a lot of desperation in the land. With regards to the vote trading, INEC is doing a lot, and we’re not resting on our oars. We’re engaging. During the Honourable Chairman’s readiness visit, he met with traditional rulers and sent a message to them to speak to their wards and their subjects. We have spoken to Osun mothers to speak to their children, because at the end of the day, it is the youth, basically, most of the time, that engage or are tools or victims of vote trading.
“The volatile or vulnerable areas, as I mentioned earlier, have already been mapped, and there will be more security deployed to those areas. There are potential flashpoints, and so the commission is aware of that. The commission has drawn up its plan with the security architecture to ensure that adequate security is deployed. The military is on the ground to give the back-end and outer-ring support in areas where we suspect that there may be an outbreak of violence.
