Barely 15 hours to the commencement of the August 15 governorship election in Osun State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has intensified preparations in Irewole Local Government Area, with officials and stakeholders putting final arrangements in place ahead of Saturday’s poll.
A visit to the INEC office in Ikire, the headquarters of Irewole LGA, showed heightened activity as ad hoc personnel, security operatives, INEC officials and other stakeholders made final preparations for the election.
Non-sensitive election materials were reportedly delivered to the office as early as 5am before being distributed to various polling units across the local government.
Sources said some ad hoc personnel, including members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), accompanied the materials to their assigned polling units.
However, about 20 trained ad hoc staff expressed concern over their exclusion from the exercise despite being shortlisted and undergoing three days of training.
“We were trained for three days after our names were pasted, but we are surprised that we didn’t see our names and where we are to work,” one of the affected workers said.
The workers said they had lodged complaints with the Electoral Officer (EO) and were waiting for clarification on their deployment.
Some of them also alleged that individuals who were neither shortlisted nor trained had been assigned to polling units.
Another ad hoc staff member, however, explained that it was not unusual for trained personnel to be deployed to local government areas other than where they were initially trained. The staff member added that the names of all trained personnel were not necessarily published alongside their specific polling assignments.
An INEC official later addressed the affected workers, explaining that the commission had deliberately trained more personnel than required to create a reserve pool for possible replacements.
According to the official, the additional personnel would be contacted if vacancies arose before or during the election.
He assured the workers that no untrained individual would be deployed to perform election duties.
The official added that INEC officials were visiting polling units across the local government to verify the presence of deployed personnel and identify any vacancies requiring immediate replacement.
The developments come as INEC and other stakeholders intensify efforts to ensure a smooth and orderly conduct of the Osun governorship election.
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