Over one million electorates go to the polls this Saturday to elect a new governor for Osun state.
Osun state, located in South-west Nigeria, has 30 local government areas, and is led by its outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola, whose tenure ends November 26 this year.
At the end of his tenure, he would have ruled the state for eight years (four years in each of his two tenures).
Aregbesola who is of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is supporting his party’s candidate, Oyetola Isiaka.
48 political parties have candidates vying for the state gubernatorial seat.
16,000 ad hoc staff have also been deployed for the smooth conduct of the election, said Olusegun Agbaje, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state at a press conference at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo during the week.
The police have deployed over 30,000 of its officers to the state. Military and other paramilitary institutions also have a sizeable number of their personnel moved to the state to ensure success of the exercise.
The international community, including the US government, European Union, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations are already on ground in the state to monitor the election.
Nigerians are hopeful that the Osun poll will determine the capacity of INEC to conduct a free, fair and credible election in 2019 when the nation will be having its general election.