{"id":2600,"date":"2026-07-30T23:58:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:34:48","slug":"osun-inec-with-npc-ooni-security-agencies-witnesses-peace-accord-warns-against-election-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=2600","title":{"rendered":"Osun: INEC with NPC, Ooni, security agencies witnesses peace accord, warns against election disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>*<strong><em>Nigeria&#8217;s Independent National Electoral Commission joins National Peace Committee, security agencies, traditional rulers, and 14 contesting political parties to sign a Peace Accord ahead of the forthcoming Osun State governorship polls<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect<\/p>\n<p>The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Thursday, July 30, 2026, joined the National Peace Committee (NPC), security agencies, traditional rulers, and 14 contesting political parties to sign a Peace Accord ahead of the Osun State Governorship Election scheduled for Saturday, 15 August 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the signing ceremony in Osogbo, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, INEC Chairman, said the Commission had completed 11 activities on its Timetable and Schedule of Activities, with only the end of campaigns at midnight 13 August and the opening of polls 15 August remaining.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xr9Ggs4m5Y\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=2596\">NITDA rallies stakeholders to explore emerging techs for inclusive growth in Nigeria<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cNITDA rallies stakeholders to explore emerging techs for inclusive growth in Nigeria\u201d \u2014 Consumer Experience Is A Top Priority\" src=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=2596&amp;embed=true#?secret=gF9rfrYdeU#?secret=xr9Ggs4m5Y\" data-secret=\"xr9Ggs4m5Y\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that the Commission would deploy across 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the Modakeke Area Office, covering 332 Registration Areas and 3,763 Polling Units, with a certified Register of Voters standing at 2,339,233 eligible voters following the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Amupitan also said 322,822 Permanent Voter Cards, representing 62 per cent of newly registered voters, had been collected as of the close of primary distribution, adding that collection at all Local Government Area offices had been extended to Friday, 31 July, 2026, to ensure inclusivity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INEC Chairman raises the alarm over insecurity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a related development, the Chairman of INEC has raised concerns over the security situation ahead of the gubernatorial election.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan warned that the Commission would not allow the democratic will of the people to be subverted by fear or force.<\/p>\n<p>He further said INEC was deeply concerned by reports of violence and threats in parts of the state, describing insecurity as a direct assault on the sanctity of the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission, he stated, had recalibrated its security strategy from reactive monitoring to proactive prevention, activating a robust synergy through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to deploy intelligence-led security measures to every polling unit and collation centre.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, INEC was working closely with the Police and the Armed Forces to protect its staff, materials and voters, and warned that any attempt to disrupt the election would be met with the full weight of the law.<\/p>\n<p>On the theft of uncollected PVCs in Okuku, Odo-Otin Local Government Area, and in Ife Central, the Chairman assured the public that the stolen cards were functionally inert, as no accreditation could take place without live biometric verification on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).<\/p>\n<p>He said serial numbers of the stolen cards were being blacklisted, law enforcement agents were closing in on the perpetrators, and affected voters were being issued replacement cards or authorised to download digital verification PVCs.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Amupitan also said the Commission had integrated the Electoral Risk Management (ERM) framework into its planning to enable systematic collection, analysis and monitoring of risk indicators across the sociopolitical and security dimensions of the process.<\/p>\n<p>Working with ICCES and other stakeholders, he said, the Commission had mapped localised risk corridors, identified emerging threats and prioritised interventions, particularly in Atakumosa East and West, Boripe, Ede North and South, Ife Central, Ifedayo, Ila, Osogbo, Ifelodun and Oriade Local Government Areas, which he described as hotspots that would receive specialised, high-visibility security deployment.<\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that security forces had been issued strict operational directives to neutralise any form of violence or attempt at ballot disruption while maintaining absolute professional neutrality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On menace of vote buying <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In respect of the thorny issue of vote buying, the INEC Chairman said the Commission was working in direct synergy with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to deploy plainclothes financial intelligence officers around polling unit perimeters.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan, therefore, warned that anyone caught buying or selling votes, whether through cash or digital transfers, would be arrested and prosecuted under the Electoral Act 2026.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BVAS, mock accreditation, assistive devices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Amupitan said 4,427 BVAS devices, including a 15 per cent operational reserve, had been configured for the election, and that all polling unit result sheets would be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after voting closes.<\/p>\n<p>He announced that a statewide Mock Accreditation Exercise would hold on Saturday, 1 August 2026, across 12 Local Government Areas, four from each senatorial district, and invited candidates, party agents, observers and the media to witness the exercise.<\/p>\n<p>He said the Commission had also integrated assistive devices across polling locations, including Braille ballot guides, magnifying glasses, EC40H posters for the hearing-impaired, and priority voting queues for persons with disabilities, pregnant women and the elderly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other stakeholders react<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Delivering the welcome address on behalf of the NPC Chairman, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Cardinal John Onaiyekan appealed to political parties to conduct their campaigns peacefully and to honour the accord in both spirit and letter, describing it as more than a ceremonial ritual.<\/p>\n<p>Representing the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, Assistant Inspector-General Fasuba Akinyele Olabode assured residents of adequate police deployment across the state and pledged that officers would remain neutral throughout the process, drawing a comparison with the peaceful conduct of the Ekiti State election in June.<\/p>\n<p>In his remarks, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, commended INEC&#8217;s independence, and urged political actors to shun violence.<\/p>\n<p>The royal father described Osun State as greater than the interests of any individual or party.<\/p>\n<p>The event was attended by the Osun State Governor, the National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), INEC National Commissioners, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, other Senior Management team from INEC, traditional rulers, religious leaders, representatives of civil society, and Security agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The INEC Chairman and his entourage also made two quick stops at the INEC Osogbo LGA office, and Ede-South Local government office as part of the readiness assessment tour.<\/p>\n<p>They were received by the Electoral Officers and other staff of the LGA offices.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Nigeria&#8217;s Independent National Electoral Commission joins National Peace Committee, security agencies, traditional rulers, and 14 contesting political parties to sign a Peace Accord ahead of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Governor Ademola Adeleke, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife; Rev. Father Matthew Hassan Kukah; and Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, INEC Chairman, at the Meeting       Photo: INEC","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-infoeducation","category-regulators"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc.png",672,365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc-300x163.png",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc.png",672,365,false],"large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc.png",672,365,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc.png",672,365,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INEC-IPC-Ooni-on-Peace-Accord-in-Osun-cc.png",672,365,false]},"author_info":{"info":["ConsumerConnect"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=20\" rel=\"category\">Highlights<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">InfoEducation<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Regulators<\/a>","tag_info":"Regulators","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2610,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}