The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it would deploy 370 Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) in Osun for the February 25 and March 11 elections.

Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, made this known to reporters on Sunday on the sideline of a two-day training organised for SPOs in Osogbo by the commission.

He said the SPOs were selected senior staff in federal government establishments and would be responsible for the training and retraining of other ad hoc staff, including Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs).

“They will organise the POs, refresh their memory, take them through the workings of the BVAS, tell them the process and procedure of the election, how to enter results and how to organise/set up at their polling units,” he said.

He reiterated the readiness of the commission to conduct the general elections, adding that the training of the SPOs indicated that the commission was fully set to go ahead with the polls.

Earlier, while addressing the SPOs, Mr Agboke warned them against being compromised by politicians to subvert the elections, saying any of them caught sabotaging the elections for politicians would be prosecuted and jailed.

Mr Agboke said he would take it up personally to prosecute any electoral officer or SPO found culpable.

He said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines remained sacrosanct for the coming elections and that many politicians feared the BVAS.

He, however, stressed that with the use of the BVAS, INEC would ensure that elections were only won on the strength of popularity and acceptability. 

(NAN)