By Adeola Badru

IBADAN—THE Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Oyo State, Mr. Mutiu Agboke, yesterday, issued a strong warning to politicians that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, would not rig in favour of any politician or political party.

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu 

He made this known while speaking with newsmen during the inspection of sensitive election materials deployed to the state at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dugbe in Ibadan.

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Agboke said: “I want to assure the members of the public that they should go out on Saturday and cast their votes for the candidates of their choice.

“Their votes will count. We shall not allow anybody to rig against anybody and INEC will not rug for anybody. We shall not allow any politician to rig against fellow politicians.

“INEC, as a commission, will not allow itself to be used as agent of rigging for anybody or groups of individuals.”

He equally appealed to the electorate not to mount pressure on the electoral officers to resort to manual accreditation or voting if the available smart card readers refused to work.

He said: “If you followed our report, INEC has come up with an official statement that anybody or anywhere the disregard the use of smart card readers, the results of those areas would not be reckoned with. And by our regulation, it will attract zero votes.”

He expressed the readiness of the commission to conduct free, fair and credible election on Saturday.

“I can tell you with all authority that all the sensitive materials for the Saturday, March 9 Governorship and House of Assembly elections are already in Oyo State. So, we have started distributing to local governments. We are good to go for the election.