INEC Praises Peaceful Ondo South By-Election Despite Network Hiccups

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday described the Ondo South senatorial by-election as peaceful, even as some polling units experienced network-related accreditation delays.

Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State Mutiu Agboke, who monitored voting across the senatorial district from Okitipupa, said most polling units opened on schedule, with officials arriving early to begin accreditation and voting. Some units were reported fully operational as early as 7:43 a.m.

“We saw enthusiasm among voters to participate in the election. Our officials were at the polling units early and, largely, most of the polling units opened on time,” Agboke said.

He commended security agencies for maintaining order, noting that personnel had been deployed across the six local government areas involved in the by-election and that no security incidents had been recorded.

Responding to reports of network difficulties affecting BVAS accreditation in some locations, Agboke said the problem was a technical issue being handled by INEC’s support team and stressed that the commission was working to ensure the challenge did not disrupt the process.

INEC National Commissioner Kunle Ajayi, said vote results would be uploaded electronically from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after counts at polling units.

He clarified that while result sheets will be uploaded and displayed on IReV once signed by party agents, the portal does not compute final scores; the official outcome will be declared at the senatorial collation centre after aggregation.

The by-election fills the Ondo South seat vacated by Jimoh Ibrahim following his appointment as Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.