In a bid to ensure the smooth conduct of the bye-election into the Guma 1 State Constituency of Benue State, over 1,000 security personnel and 280 members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, members have been deployed to participate in the exercise scheduled to take place on Saturday
This was disclosed at the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, organised by the Benue State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Makurdi .
The ICCES has the Resident Electoral Commissioner and Benue State Commissioner, who are co-chairmen.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sam Egwu, in a meeting with stakeholders on election security, assured of the commission’s preparedness towards free, fair and credible elections.
He noted that sensitive materials and ad hoc staff will be deployed on Friday.
The representative of the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Samuel Gimba, said an adequate number of security agents have also been deployed to ensure the success of the election.
Newspot recalls that the election is coming as a result of a vacuum created due to the appointment of Ortese Yanma, who was the lawmaker for Guma 1 Constituency, as Commissioner for Health and Human Services by Governor Hyacinth Alia.
The election is a very critical one that has caused irreconcilable differences in the ruling APC in the state.
It has thrown the party into an unimaginable crisis as the state governor is believed not to be supporting the candidate of the APC.
