Babatope Okeowo 
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday expressed its readiness for the November 16 Ondo State governorship election.
Chairman Mahmood Yakubu pledged after visiting INEC offices in the local government areas they would be transparent in the distribution and inspection of sensitive materials to be used in the election.
He said election stakeholders would be allowed to inspect sensitive materials before the commencement of voting. The professor said he was in the state to assess the level of preparedness ahead of the election and to meet with stakeholders to have a peaceful, free, fair, and credible exercise.
Yakubu, who expressed the Commission’s readiness for the election, said sensitive materials for the exercise would arrive on Tuesday next week.
According to him, the inspection of the materials by major stakeholders will begin today before being moved to the councils tomorrow.
He said: “With 10 days to the election, the level of preparedness is very impressive. Very rarely will you find the Commission prepared before the election. That is why I’ve been going around LG to see if they have everything they are supposed to have at this point.
“The only thing remaining is the sensitive materials which will arrive on Tuesday next week. On Wednesday, there will be an inspection of the sensitive materials by all parties, candidates, observers, security agencies, media houses and personnel in the Commission among others.
“On Thursday we will commence the movement of the materials to LG beginning with the farthest to the nearest. There will be the same inspection in the local government before we move it to the RAC centre and on Saturday morning the election will commence.”
Yakubu visited the Akure North Local Government electoral office in Iju ItaOgbolu, where the Electoral Commissioner, Dije Mustapha, expressed that they were 85 per cent prepared for the election.
“We are very prepared; we are like 85 per cent ready, the only thing we are waiting for is the sensitive materials,” she said.
The Electoral Commissioner in Akure South, Ezekiel Oyediran, acknowledged that they had received almost all the required non-sensitive materials for the election and had been batched into registration areas and polling units.
