The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced that it will deploy a total of 46,084 regular and ad-hoc staff for the governorship elections scheduled for November 11 in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States.

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, made this disclosure during a quarterly meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja on Friday.

The commission has also accredited 11,000 observers for the elections.

Prof. Yakubu expressed the commission’s apprehension about the current security situation, saying, “As we said repeatedly, we are concerned about the prevailing insecurity and election-related violence in the three States. We have been reassured of adequate deployment by the security agencies.”

The off-cycle elections will involve 5,409,438 registered voters who will cast their votes in 10,510 polling units across 649 electoral wards in 56 local government areas of the three states. INEC has already delivered all non-sensitive materials to the states.

Regarding media coverage, the chairman mentioned that 80 media organizations have applied for accreditation, seeking to deploy 1,203 personnel, including journalists and technical/support staff, to report on the elections.

Additionally, the 18 political parties participating in the elections will deploy 137,934 agents, consisting of 130,093 polling agents and 7,841 collation agents.

The Commission is also finalizing arrangements for vehicles and boats to ensure the secure movement of personnel and materials.

Prof. Yakubu stressed the importance of a secure environment for such a massive deployment and stated that the commission would continue to engage with the security agencies to ensure safety.

Meetings with stakeholders are also planned at both the national and state levels in preparation for the governorship elections.