The governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States will hold on June 18 and July 16, respectively.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday, called for stronger support from the Nigerian Armed Forces ahead of the off-cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states.
He made the call during his visit with some commissioners of the commission to the force headquarters in Abuja.
Having noted the commission’s challenges ahead of the June 18 and July 16 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun respectively, the INEC chairman said the commission is in need of the force’s support to deliver outstanding election materials to both states.
Mr Yakubu said his visit to the force headquarters wibe extended to other armed services as the commission seeks ways to eradicate the challenges of poor electoral logistics management.
“There is no time to waste, as the 2023 general elections are only 261 days from today.”
“However, the Ekiti State governorship election is holding in the next 10 days on Saturday 18th June while the Osun governorship election is held in 38 days on Saturday 16th July 2022.
“We’ll seek the support of the Air Force in handling the delivery of outstanding election materials to the two states while the Commission bears responsibility for all subsequent deployment within the states to the local government areas and beyond as has been the practice,” he said.
In his response, Chief of Air Staff, Isiaka Amao, said the force is aware of INEC challenges and pledged his support to provide transport aircraft for the 2023 general elections.
He also called for a deeper relationship between INEC and the force so as to “enable us to incorporate INEC activities in our operational plans.”