On Thursday, there was a high presence of soldiers on Edo State’s borders with Kogi, Delta, Ondo, and Anambra states, ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in the South-South state.
throughout addition, some 100 Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operatives had been stationed throughout the state to prevent vote-buying during the election.
The election will feature 17 political parties, with Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party as the main contenders.
Detachments of troops and police officers were also sighted around Akpapava Road, Ring Road, Sapele Road bypass, Ramat Park, Benin-Agbor Road, and Oregbeni, a known dark place in the city.
Residents, on the other hand, went about their business, since the deployment had little effect on commercial activity at the Oba Market, Lagos Road, Mission Road, Forestry, or Sakponba Road.
Frank Mba, Deputy Inspector-General of Police in command of the police contingent for the election, stated that the deployment of military forces to the state was intended to ensure a smooth electoral process.
“Like the IGP has already briefed Nigerians, the police will be deploying adequately for the Edo election. What we have done today (Wednesday) is to hold a meeting with the strategic commanders, DPOs, Area Commanders, Deputy Commissioners of Police and Commissioner of Police who are saddled with the task of providing leadership and supervision at the various levels.
“Our task is to provide a peaceful atmosphere for the conduct of a free, fair and credible election. We are working with sister agencies as we cannot work in isolation. The state shares borders with Kogi, Delta, Ondo and Anambra states, so the security will be adequately done. The Army will man these border areas that are far away while the Navy will also provide security on the waterways, while other security organisations will also work with us during the election,’’ he stated.
In an interview, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale stated that Adebayo Adeniyi, the Port Harcourt Zonal Director, will oversee the agency’s team in the state.
He said, “100 EFCC operatives were deployed to monitor the elections. Port Harcourt Zonal Director of the EFCC, Adebayo Adeniyi, leads the team.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission began deploying more than 5,000 Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems and other election-related sensitive materials on Thursday.
The electoral authority sent sensitive documents to the state’s 18 local government areas at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s headquarters on Akpakpava intersection, Ring Road in Benin.
The hired vehicles that transported the goods to various destinations were stationed alongside the CBN, arriving one after the other to load the materials.
The electoral officers and police were also there to convey the materials to their respective destinations.
The roads were roped off, thus commercial operations in the region were prohibited.
Onuoha Anugbum, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, supervised the distribution of the materials alongside the INEC commissioner in the state.
Speaking to journalists, he stated, “We’re here at the Central Bank to transmit sensitive materials to their respective local administrations. Previously, we signed the paperwork and invited political parties and security services to observe. To God’s glory, they all saw the critical information, which we then transmitted to the various local administrations.
“We started with Edo North, then Edo Central before Edo South Senatorial District. We invited everyone; you know INEC has the tradition of carrying everybody along.
“The sensitive materials include results sheets, voting sheets, we call voting sheets form A, we have form B, is the ward collation results, form C, is the local government collation results,
“INEC had 13 programmes which were published on 26 September 2023. So far, we have executed 11 out of the 13 programmes and the 12th one ended today (Thursday). Today (Thursday) is the last day, the politicians are not expected to campaign again. So, the 13th one will end September 21.”
