A group of election observers, YIAGA AFRICA, has expressed concerns with the overzealous and hostile conduct of security personnel deployed to Ekiti state for Saturday governorship election.

The Executive Director, YIAGA AFRICA, Samson Itodo, therefore, called on security agencies “to uphold the principles of non-partisanship, transparency, civil policing and professionalism in the conduct of the affairs”.

Itodo said his group is employing parallel vote tabulation (PVT) methodology to provide timely and accurate information on the conduct, accreditation, voting and counting in Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State.

He said the PVT, which he described as “gold standard for citizenship observation” of election, would also enhance its independent verification of the official results of the election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He urged INEC to “respect the results counting and announcement procedures including the posting of Form EC 60E even with the introduction of new electronic collation technologies’.

•Excerpted from Daily Trust