Less than Forty eight hours to the commencement of Nigeria’s crucial general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday appealed to prospective voters not to take photographic devices to polling booths on election day. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who made the appeal at the first daily briefing on the election said it was meant to prevent vote transaction.

The Electoral Commission (INEC) also announced that 87 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have so far been collected ahead of the upcoming general elections. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this at the maiden briefing for the 2023 elections in Abuja on Thursday.

A breakdown of the figure shows that Lagos leads in the number of collected PVCs with 6,214,970. This is closely followed by Kano with 5,594,193, and Kaduna with 4,164, 473.

The Electoral umpire also stated that “the ban on the use of mobile phones and photographic devices at the voting cubicles, is still in place. Some voters have used these devices in previous elections to snap their marked ballot papers for vote transaction. However, citizens are permitted to come to the Polling Units with these devices, as long as they do not take them to the voting cubicles. Our arrangement of placing the ballot box near the voting cubicle and away from party agents remains”, he said.

Asked whether the Commission would physically prevent voters from using the photographic device, he said: “We’ll be very busy on that day to police people who carry phone cell phones to the polling booth. It is to prevent vote transaction.

According to him, vote buying remains a major threat to our democracy, adding that : “we have worked closely with enforcement agencies to ensure that this is eliminated from our electoral process. We are convinced that our joint operations before and on election day will vastly reduce the prospect of voter inducement, which is not only illegal but immoral. The ban on the use of mobile phones and photographic devices at the voting cubicles, is still in place.”

Prof. Yakubu who said the Commission was good to go on the election confirmed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had provided what the Commission required from its budget to cash payment to some critical service providers for the election.

He said the release of the cash to the Commission assisted it in the transfer of sensitive electoral materials to various state branches for onward transmission to local government areas and eventually the polling units very early on election day. Essentially, he said the Commission does most of its transactions by electronic transfer.

The electoral umpire boss said 1,574,301 identification cards have been produced for the 18 political parties’ polling Unit agents and 68,057 Collation Agents at the registration area/ward, local government and state.

Prof Yakubu who reassured Nigerians and the international community on the preparedness of the Commission for the elections said the electoral body’s allegiance is only to Nigerians stressing that the Commission is determined to put everything in place for a free,fair and credible elections. He disclosed that Collation and Returning Officers are undergoing intensive training and would complete their training shortly.

His words:” An essential part of this training has been the emphasis on the neutrality of staff and the need for them to be committed and dedicated throughout the duration of their assignments. The Commission shall carefully monitor the performance of all staff involved in the election and ensure that both recognition and sanctions are applied wherever applicable.”

Speaking on preparations for the elections, particularly logistics and allied issues, Prof. Yakubu explained that the Commission had met with the leadership of the judiciary, the Inter Security Consultative Committee on Election Security ,the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) on how to make the election process stress free.

He said 100,000 vehicles and 4200 boats would be used for Saturday’s election stressing that adequate arrangements have been made for fueling of the vehicles, boats and generators.

On election observation, he said the Commission has accredited 229 groups deploying 146,913 observers.” As I said at the briefing for election observers on Tuesday this week, this is the largest deployment of observers in the history of elections in Nigeria. Similarly, the Commission has so far accredited 457 national and international media organisations deploying 8,882 journalists. We encourage them to freely observe and report the election within the remits of our laws and international good practice.”

According to him, the voter population of 93,469,008 is more than the total number of registered voters in all the other countries of West Africa put together. In addition, we shall be deploying to 176,606 polling units (excluding the 240 polling units without registered voters) simultaneously.

On what to expect on election day ,Prof Yakubu said :”let me reiterate that the procedure for voting as provided in the Electoral Act 2022, clearly makes the use of the BVAS mandatory. So also, the use of the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC). The NO PVC, NO VOTING rule subsists.”

Speaking on the attacks on its facilities, the INEC boss said; “we are fully recovered from these attacks”.

He said the INEC website is activated to accommodate 200million hits at a time.

Speaking on the death of a senatorial aspirant in the southeast geopolitical zone , Prof Yakubu who said the Commission had not been briefed officially by his party disclosed that Section 34 of the electoral Act 2022 would apply in the case .