Ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on Monday, met behind closed doors with security agencies in the state, under the auspices of the Inter-Agencies Consultative Committee on Election Security.

Before going into the meeting, Yakubu said there was a need to plan ahead to ensure a successful poll.

Yakubu said there was no foreseeable threat ahead but “all the flashpoints have been identified, including the types of threats across the 18 local government areas.”

No fewer than 16 political parties are participating in the governorship election,according to INEC.

The Monday security meeting, held at INEC headquarters in Akure, had in attendance the state Commissioner of Police, the state Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the representatives of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Correctional Service, among others.

In his remarks before the commencement of the meeting, Yakubu stated that the purpose of the meeting was to plan a hitch-free preparation for the election.

“We came to observe the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration in Ondo State and second is to monitor the preparation for the election.

“We can’t succeed in delivering electoral activities and the elections unless the electoral environment is secured for us.

“This is going to be the third governorship election conducted by the present commission in Ondo State. I was here in 2016 for the same purpose; I was here in 2020 for the governorship election and, by God’s grace, we’ll be here again in November 2024 for yet another governorship election.

“I want to assure registered voters in Ondo State that they should continue to troop out in their numbers to register and collect their PVCs from the current registration, but we also have literally over 200,000 uncollected PVCs from the last exercise,” he said.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, the INEC chairman said the preparation for the election was reviewed while some areas of challenges were identified to be handled by the security agencies.

“This is an essential routine meeting we had with the Commissioner of Police and members of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security in Ondo State to review our preparation for the forthcoming governorship election.

“So, we reviewed the challenges generally. There are areas with issues that are known; there is nothing extraordinary requiring some extraordinary action, but we recognise the need for us to continue to be vigilant when working with the security agencies.

“All the flashpoints have been identified, including the types of threats across the 18 local government areas, and we have shared the information with the security agencies who will do the needful,” he stated.

Yakubu appealed to political leaders in the state as well as the people to continue to keep the peace, saying, “We have had no major adverse reports as we prepare for the elections. We are confident that it will remain the same into the election and beyond,” he said.

Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Abayomi Oladipupo, disclosed that the deployment of security personnel for the November poll had already been done by the Force Headquarters but he declined to mention the number of the personnel deployed.

He added that there was a strong synergy among the security agencies in the state, hence, the assurance of a smooth process.

“Election security is not new to us as an agency of government charged with internal security operations. We are fully prepared in conjunction with our sister security agencies, which you have seen around.

“At the moment, we have deployed personnel for the Continuous Voter Registration, which is ongoing, and that is the reason we appreciate the coming of the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to interface with us, to know our challenges and the level of our preparation,” he said.