The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that it has identified 385 potential trouble spots and 200 locations with challenging terrain ahead of the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Oluwatoyin Babalola, made this known during a security coordination meeting held at the police headquarters in Osogbo on Friday. The meeting was convened by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the South West, Adegoke Fayoade, and was attended by security chiefs, religious leaders, electoral officials and journalists.
Babalola said the commission had completed a comprehensive risk assessment across all 30 local government areas and had shared the findings with security agencies to guide their deployment and response strategies.
“We have also conducted risk management training because we are currently in our amber zone. We have field officers who will be in the field for ground truthing to carry out risk assessments in different locations across the 30 local government areas,” she said.
“We identified 385 flashpoints in the state, which have been shared with the security agencies. We also identified difficult terrains to guide their operations, because there are still places in the state that are not motorable and cannot be easily accessed.”
“We identified about 200 such areas, and we have been training our staff on how to manage themselves and maintain peace. I have visited 29 out of the 30 local government areas in the state,” Babalola added.
She noted that she had visited Ila and Ifedayo local government areas, where kidnapping cases had been reported, and received assurances from security agencies that peace would be maintained before and after the election.
On election logistics, Babalola said the commission had already received about 75 per cent of the materials needed for the poll.
“For example, non-statutory materials have been deployed to their appropriate locations. The Commissioner of Police, at all times, along with other security agencies, has been assuring us that we will have a peaceful election,” she said.
“Because if we conduct an election and there is no peace, even if we make the best plans and nobody comes out to vote on election day, it will be an exercise in futility.”
She called on all security agencies to intensify their efforts, expressing confidence that more could still be done to reassure residents of a peaceful electoral process.
“On our part, we are committed to conducting free, fair, credible, inclusive and transparent governorship elections,” Babalola said.
Osun State voters will head to the polls on August 15 to elect a new governor. Incumbent Ademola Adeleke is seeking re-election under the Accord Party, while his main challengers include Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress and Dr Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress.
