• INEC distributes non-sensitive materials to council areas
David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has said that it would deploy a total of N11, 000 personnel for the conduct of the Anambra State governorship election slated forNovember 18, 2017.
Also, 30 sniffer dogs and four drones would be deployed, including ambulances and medical teams as well as 115 vehicles, 15 of which would be deployed to the riverine areas of the state.
 In the meantime, ahead of the governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deployed non-sensitive materials to all the 21 local government areas in the state.
The Anambra State Commandant of the Corps, Mr. John Ahwen, disclosed this to journalists in Awka yesterday, explaining that the move was to ensure total security of lives and property during the exercise.
 Ahwen said the officials to be deployed to the state would be moved from seven states namely: Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Rivers, Edo, Delta and Imo.
According to Ahwen, the Deputy Commandant-General in charge of Operations, Mr. Hillary Madu, would be the ground commander and would be assisted by two Assistant Commandants-General.
The NSCDC boss enjoined the electorate to come out en-masse to participate in the election without any fear of molestation.
 “The people of the state should feel free and secure to exercise their franchise during the election because the security agencies are out to protect them,†he stated.
The Nigeria police had earlier promised to also deploy 28,000 officers for the election and three helicopters to cover the three senatorial zones of the state.
 In the meantime, INEC’s Head of Voter Education in the state, Owette Emmanuel, at a training exercise organised by an observer group, Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement(YIAGA) for its Watching The Vote (WTV) team and trainers in preparation for the election, disclosed that the commission has distributed non sensitive materials in the state.
 Owete said all political parties contesting the governorship polls have been publicly presented with the document containing all the registered voters in the state, and enough transparency has been shown by the commission for the election.
He reiterated the commission’s readiness for the elections, saying INEC has simplified the election process by creating Registration Area Centre (RACS) in various wards which are not far from polling units. This according to him, will eliminate the late arrival of election personnel and materials to the polling units.
During the training, he said INEC is putting finishing touches to its preparation for the November 18 polls with several voter education programs across communities using various medium of communication like Radio jingles.
“Enough sensitisation has been done on how to vote right. If Voters vote rightly, rejected votes will not much†he said.
He added that persons with disability (PWDs) would be given special consideration to prevent them from going through the rigours of queuing for accreditation and voting. He also emphasised the security of voters as he said adequate security personnel would be deployed while urging citizens to stay out of trouble.
YIAGA project manager had said that its Watching-The-Vote project has recruited 500 polling unit observers who will be trained to observe the November 18 elections while also deploying 27 mobile observers across all the 21 local government areas in the state to supervise stationary polling units, observers and report critical incident.
