The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has said that any underaged person or foreigner found attempting to vote at Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections would be arrested and prosecuted.
Giving his last briefing before the elections on Friday, Yakubu said it was an illegality for such category of people to vote in the country. According to him, voting is for bona fide Nigerians who have attained the statutory age of voting.
Breaking down what the elections would look like in terms of figures, the INEC Chairman disclosed that “Nigerians will elect a president out of a total of 73 candidates nominated by their political parties. Similarly, voters will choose 109 Senators out of 1880 candidates and 360 members of the House of Representatives out of 4631 candidates. Elections will hold in 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja
“Voting will take place is 176,973 locations made up of 119,973 Polling units and 57,023 voting points.”
In terms of manpower and other resources which the commission has put in place to ensure a smooth process, he said:
“We have engaged 825,543 Ad-hoc staff ranging from presiding officers to collation officers.
“80,000 commercial vehicles have been made available by the commission to facilitate the entire process. INEC has accredited 120 domestic and 36 international organizations deploying a total of 73, 000 observers for the elections tomorrow.”
Assuring Nigerians that arrangements were in place to facilitate the opening of polls at 8am on Saturday, February 23, the INEC Chairman reiterated that telephones and other photographic would not allowed in the voting cubicles.
In his own comments, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu assured of maximum security.
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According to him, “there will be maximum security for INEC Staff and the election materials before the elections, during the elections and after the election.”
He has stated that there will be at least three security personnel at the polling unit, to protect the electorates, INEC officials and the electoral materials.
“The personnel that will be there will not be armed, so there is no need for apprehension. While the election is going on, we may have some group of people that may want to disrupt the process, we have put in place a strategy to stop that,” he said.
He however, disclosed that at the end of voting, materials would be protected by armed security personnel.
“After the elections, movements of materials collected from the centres will also be protected. We will put extra personnel who are armed to protect the results,” he said.
The IG encouraged Nigerians “to go out peacefully, cast their votes and wait for the announcement of the results,” warning that those who cause trouble would be arrested.
