He said 1,938,171 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were received from INEC headquarters and out of which 1,860,239 were distributed, while 77,932 PVCs remained unclaimed.

According to him, the collection exercise is closed and the unclaimed PVCs will only be collected after the polls.

He assured that INEC was determined to ensure free, transparent and fair elections and urged the people to continue to pray for successful conduct of the exercise.

The REC said that INEC had recruited and trained 16,000 ad hoc staff, mostly NYSC members and students of higher institutions to serve during the exercise.

He added that we have 225 wards, 1,345 voting points and 2,398 poling units in the 21 local government areas of the state.

We are going to use 520 vehicles in the transportation of ad hoc staff and election materials as we had already perfected arrangement with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Federal Road Service Corps (FRSC), as well as security agencies on transportation.

The commissioner said that special arrangements had also been made to take care of physically challenged persons, to enable them to exercise their franchise without hitches.

He urged politicians to ensure hitch-free exercise by allowing level playing ground and peaceful atmosphere.