By Dele Ogbodo
With barely 2 weeks to the elections, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are fine tuning strategies
toward the conduct of free and fair elections.
Pleading for collaboration, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakub, while addressing officers of FRSC in a strategy session held at the FRSC National Headquarters Abuja, said collaboration has become expedient to secure lives and property of the voters as well as voting materials.
FRSC spokesman, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, said Yakub, commended FRSC for its consistent support to INEC, which led to the successes recorded in the past elections.
The Chairman assured that INEC has put all necessary measures in place to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the coming general elections, noting that all hands must remain on deck to sustain people’s trust and confidence in the Commission.
Yakub, enumerated the measures so far taken by the commission to ensure the credibility of the electoral process to include authentication of the numbers of the registered voters and political parties, the collation of the total number of constituencies nationwide, collation of the positions being contested for at the federal and state levels and the challenges which court cases pose to the Commission, which are being tackled head-on as well as prompt release of the election timetable since January last year, stressing that INEC is ready for the elections come February 16.
The Chairman tasked the FRSC to assist in the screening of the selected drivers that would drive the vehicles to convey the election materials as well as inspection of the vehicles, deployment of the FRSC patrol teams on the election day to guide against violation of restriction order on movement of people and vehicles and providing easy access to vehicles conveying INEC materials, liaising with the Police and other law enforcement agencies for orderly and secured electoral process.
On technical assistance, he also appealed to FRSC for the utilisation of its call centre for prompt report of distress messages on election day so as to ensure free movement of traffic for voters and passage of electoral materials.
In his remarks, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, commended sharing with them the commission’s expectations of their roles in the elections, adding that FRSC would live up to expectations by playing its own roles in the elections most diligently.
Oyeyemi, stressed that personnel have been trained at the various levels by the commission to ensure success, explaining that FRSC as a non partisan organisation will continue to work closely with relevant security agencies on how to discharge its responsibilities through provision of safe and secured environment for voting.