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INEC signs agreement with transport unions, needs 100,000 vehicles, 4,200 boats for 2023 elections

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the road transportation and marine workers’ unions ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The unions include the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).

In his address at the ceremony, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission would require 100,000 vehicles and 4,200 boats for the elections.

He said: “The signing of a revised MoU with the road and marine transport unions today is a demonstration of our determination to implement key recommendations of the review exercise to enhance forward and reverse logistics in our electoral operations.

“The 2023 general elections 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 polling units 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.”

READ ALSO: INEC cautions against inducements by money bags in 2023 elections

Yakubu assured Nigerians that INEC would ensure that all polling units across the country open at 8:30 a.m. on February 25, 2023, for the presidential and National Assembly elections and on March 11, 2023, for the governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

He recalled that the commission signed the first MoU with the NURTW in January 2015, and reviewed it in December 2018 to incorporate NARTO.

But MWUN was not incorporated in the arrangement at the time.

The situation, according to him, has often resulted in logistics nightmares in the deployment and retrieval of personnel and materials to the riverine areas of the country.

Yakubu added: “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 urged the leadership of the unions to effectively supervise their members in the various chapters and branches for the full implementation of the MoU.

The National President of NURTW, Tajudeen Baruwa, said the signing of the MoU marked the beginning of the journey for the successful conduct of the 2023 elections.

He assured that the three unions would ensure the successful implementation of the MoU.

“I wish to assure you and the entire nation, that the three unions, that on our part, we would not disappoint Nigeria.

“In fact, the NURTW, MWUN, and NARTO have come to regard this assignment as national service and therefore must deliver,” Baruwa said.

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