Nigeria: Security beefed up at INEC’s offices in Lagos
By CHINYERE Ogbonna: – Ahead of Saturday’s presidential election in Nigeria, security has been beefed up at the Lagos State Office of the Independent Electoral Commission, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
As part of the security measures, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC’s) were positioned at the entrance of the commission’s office. There was a heavy presence of security personnel in the area.
Some soldiers and mobile police personnel were also seen within the area perhaps to provide protection for electoral officers and materials.
Members of staff of the commission were seen busy sorting and packaging non-sensitive electoral materials for distribution to different parts of the state.
INEC vehicles were also seen loading and moving materials to the commission’s local government offices across the state.
Meanwhile, the state’s Head of Public Affairs, Femi Akinbiyi, said that the commission had distributed three point eight million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to registered voters in the state.
Akinbiyi said that the figure represented sixty-nine per cent of the total registered voters.
“We have distributed 3, 847, 491 PVCs in Lagos as at the end of last week.
“This represent sixty-nine per cent of the total registered voters in the state,” the spokesperson said.
According to Akinbiyi, many registered voters failed to show up to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.
On cards yet to be collected by their owners, the spokesman said that the state was waiting for directive on the next step of action from its headquarters in Abuja.
Akinbiyi, however iterated the commitment of the commission to ensuring free, fair and acceptable elections on March 28 and April 11.
