The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it required over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats to move personnel and materials for the conduct of 2023 general elections.
The chairman, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this yesterday in Abuja at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the commission and the road transport and marine workers' unions.
He said this is to ensure that personnel and materials were at the polling units (PUs) on election days on time.
According to him, "INEC requires large numbers of vehicles, including motorcycles, tricycles, boats, and canoes in the riverine areas which cannot be met from its internal resources.
"It was for this reason that the commission signed the first MoU with the NURTW in January 2015. In order to expand the pool of our service providers to meet the requirement for the increasing number of vehicles, the MoU was reviewed in December 2018 to incorporate NARTO," Yakubu said.
He recalled that four years ago on 12th December 2018, INEC signed a MoU with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).
He said that the MoU was based on the realisation of the critical role of transportation in the conduct of elections in Nigeria and that the MoU was designed to facilitate the successful deployment of personnel and materials for the 2019 General Election and other elections.
He said, "The 2023 general election will involve the nationwide deployment of over one million personnel and massive quantities of materials twice within a period of two weeks from our state offices to 774 Local Government Areas, 8,809 electoral Wards, and 176,846 PUs across the length and breadth of our country.
"It will require over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,200 boats that will be accompanied by naval gunboats. This is a huge undertaking that must be accomplished in the next 66 days and we are resolute in doing so to give Nigerians a pleasant voting experience. "
"Let me assure Nigerians that we are determined that all polling units nationwide will open at 8.30 am on Saturday, 25th February 2023 for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and on Saturday, 11th March 2023 for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections."
The INEC boss said that over the years, the commission has come to rely on the partnership with the NURTW and NARTO to provide vehicles for the successful deployment of electoral personnel and materials.
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"However, we did not incorporate the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) within the ambit of the MoU, a situation which has often resulted in logistics nightmare in the deployment and retrieval of personnel and materials to the riverine areas of the country. This oversight is now addressed by the revised MoU to include MWUN comprising of sailors, dockworkers, and those in related trades in our electoral logistics planning and delivery," he added.
He was optimistic that the leadership of the unions will supervise their members in the various chapters and branches for the full implementation of the MoU and thus would be required to work very closely with INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and collaborate with the Federal Regulatory and Safety Agencies to ensure that the objectives of the MoU are fully realised in terms of required road/sea worthiness and safety standards of your vehicles and boats.
He said, "Furthermore, the knowledge of your members of the routes and topography in various parts of the country is especially important for ease of movement and a timeous and safe delivery of personnel and materials, especially to areas with difficult terrain.
"The security agencies shall not only be available to escort all vehicles and boats to locations, they will also ensure the safety and protection of all election personnel and materials.
"As usual, we shall track the movement of all vehicles and boats electronically and in real-time to ensure that election personnel and materials are not hijacked or diverted."
