INEC needs 24,000 personnel for Ondo polls — REC

No fewer than 24,000 personnel will be used by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the rescheduled general elections in Ondo State.

The personnel, according to the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, will be made up of security agents and ad hoc administrative and operational workers.

Agbaje, who disclosed this in Akure, the state capital, while giving details of the logistic preparations of his office for the coming elections, said the commission would need about 10,000 security personnel to provide security cover in the state.

He added that INEC would be deploying about 14,000 ad hoc staff to man the various poling units and handle other vital electoral assignments.

He said the personnel include the Police, the Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and other security and paramilitary agencies in the state.

"We are using at least 10,000 security people and over 14,000 ad hoc staff for this election. The security personnel include the Police, the military and other paramilitary agencies.

"We have made adequate arrangements with National Union of Road Transport Workers for vehicles; for difficult areas we have made arrangement with the motor cycle unions to enable us have adequate logistics for our operations.

"We have also arranged for vehicles for our electoral officers and the ones for security. The security will not be in the same vehicles with the ad hoc staff and the election materials," Agbaje said.

He added that reaching the coastal areas would not be a problem since INEC had made arrangements at the registration area centres, where it would camp its officials overnight.

"They will go there on Friday before the election; we have 203 RACs across the states, they will go there.

"By evening, they will share the materials to the various wards according to polling units and rest for a while. Maybe at 5 am, they will prepare and move to their polling centres.

"Those who are crossing the waters will do so by Friday afternoon, so that by Saturday they will move from their RACs to their polling units," he added.