'We are ready in Epe,' says INEC Electoral Officer

INEC Electoral Officer in Epe Local Government, Henry Okpkigbe, on Friday March 27, said that the commission has engaged about 25 canoes and five flying boats for its staff moving to riverine areas.

He spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Epe, assuring that election materials for Saturday’s elections were already at the local government and would be at polling units in good time.

“We are ready for tomorrow's elections in 19 wards and 355 polling units,'' he said.

"We are engaging about 1,064 adhoc staff for the election; each polling unit will have three adhoc staff,’’ he said.

Okpkigbe said that security personnel had been engaged to pilot the materials to their destinations.

According to him, about 355 card readers will be deployed to all polling units in the local government area.

NAN reports that there was high presence of security personnel at the INEC office in Epe.

The Head of Public Affairs of INEC, Lagos office, Femi Akinbiyi, had on Thursday, March 26, told NAN that the commission commenced the distribution of sensitive materials with the riverine areas of Badagry and Epe.

“We have commenced the distribution of ballot papers and results sheets. We planned it in such a way that we started with farthest Local Government Areas (LGAs) such as Badagry,’’ he had said.

Meanwhile, many local and International journalists in Lagos on Friday besieged the Lagos headquarters office of the commission on Birrel Avenue, Yaba to receive accreditation materials for the coverage of Saturday elections.

Some journalists were seen collecting their accreditation materials while others were also waiting to pick up theirs, to facilitate their movement and coverage of the polls.

NAN reports that security has been intensified around the office, with officers of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps positioned in the vicinity.