As preparations for the upcoming Edo and Ondo State governorship elections reach its crescendo, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria and the Nigerian Police Force, have announced strategic plans to protect the mandate of voters in the states with the deployment of new election technology and increased manpower.
Both the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, spoke in Benin, the Edo State capital, at a meeting attended by political parties, candidates, civil society organisations, and the media.
Nigeria Introduces The Z-Pad
In his remarks, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said the Commission is determined to widen the deployment of technology in elections with the latest device being the Z-pad.
He revealed that the Z-pad, originally used in the Nasarawa State by-elections weeks ago, would serve as a biometric accreditation device using facial recognition.
“Perhaps the most critical of the recent innovations introduced by the Commission is the use of a tablet now popularly called the z-pad. It is an innovation introduced to serve as a secondary means of achieving full biometric accreditation using the facial image of the voter in support of the fingerprint authentication by the Smart Card Reader,” Yakubu said.
Last month, INEC also introduced a dedicated online portal, “INEC Result Viewing (IRV),” that will enable Nigerians to view results. The electoral umpire, however, stressed that the innovation does not constitute the electronic collation of results.
Yakubu, however, explained that during its test run in Nasarawa the Z-pad encountered “hardware and software issues which need to be fixed.”
Nigerian Police To Operate In Full Force
On his part, the Inspector General of Police for Nigeria, IGP Adamu, stated that the security agency will deploy 31,000 police personnel ahead of the governorship election in Edo state.
“Aside from the optimal deployment of our intelligence assets to pro-actively frustrate any threat to the elections, we shall be deploying a total of 31,000 Police personnel to protect the personnel and assets of the Independent National Electoral Commission, the electorate, and residents of Edo State before, during and immediately after the elections,” he said. He also noted that this will be enough to man the 2,627 polling units spread across the state.
Violence has become prevalent leading up to the 2020 Edo State governorship election that has the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki running for re-election on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), against Osagie Ize-Iyamu who is running under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
