By Our Correspondent

Barely 24 hours to Osun governorxhip election on saturday,the Election Observation Group, Yiaga Africa, has raised concerns over the logistical implications of the last-minute inclusion of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Saturday’s Osun State governorship election.

Recall that the SDP candidate, Dr. Francis Olugbenga Ajala, and his running mate, Faseke Babajimi Oladipo inclusion followed a Federal High Court judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to place the party on the ballot.

Speaking at a re-election press briefing the Chairman of the 2026 Osun Election Observation Mission, Yiaga Africa, Dr. Asmau Maikudi, said the compliance with the judgment required INEC to reprint ballot papers and result sheets, increasing the number of political parties participating in the election to 15.

Maikudi also noted that the pressure on the deployment process could result in logistical errors, delayed arrival of materials at polling locations and late commencement of polls.

“Yiaga Africa is concerned that such late judicial interventions create avoidable operational pressure and heighten the risk of delayed deployment, logistical errors and late commencement of polls. While compliance with court orders is obligatory, judicial decisions delivered at the eleventh hour can impose significant administrative costs on election management and potentially undermine public confidence in the process,” she said.

Maikudi also urged INEC to resolve all outstanding technical issues with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to prevent disenfranchisement, delays and other operational disruptions arising from technical failures.

She said “INEC’s mock accreditation exercise exposed significant technical challenges that raise concerns about election-day readiness. Some BVAS devices temporarily failed to recognize voters’ fingerprints, facial features and older PVC records. INEC attributed the facial verification failures to an excessively high compatibility threshold affecting older voter data, particularly records that had not been revalidated. If unresolved, these failures could disenfranchise eligible voters, generate tension at polling units and undermine confidence in the credibility and legitimacy of the election.”

Maikudi further called for more consistent coordination within the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to ensure proper security of polling officials deployed to Registration Area Centres ahead of election day.

While calling on INEC to avoid complacency, anticipate predictable points of failure, and demonstrate readiness through performance, the she added “election-day credibility will depend on timely deployment, reliable technology, consistent application of the law and effective contingency planning.”

By George Mgbeleke

The Federal Ministry of Finance Thursday accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL) , of not making available , financial records it would have used to answer queries raised against it in the
2021 to 2023 Oil and Gas Sector Audit report by Nigeria Extractive Industry Tranency Initiative ( NEITI).

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Raymond Omachi made the allegation when being interrogated by Senate Committee on Public Accounts on several financial infractions raised against the Ministry in the NEITI audit findings .

One of the infractions as contained in the report, was the pre – export financing $3billion loan taken in 2012 to settle subsidy payment which according to NEITI , recovery of the loan from monthly Federation revenue proceeds under pre -export financing and project eagle agreement remains unclear .

Another query raised against the Ministry by NEITI is that ” In 2021, the sum of $722.6 million was paid to NNPC by Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas ( NLNG) as dividend and interest earned by Federation but was neither remitted to the Federation nor properly accounted for .

Observation made by NEITI that in 2021 , none of the refineries was operational despite N200billion spent on them , couldn’t be answered by the Ministry just as it could not provide answer to $221.283million overhead costs incured by by NAPIMS in 2021.

In his response to the queries , the Permanent Secretary said the Ministry was not directly involved in all the dealings or transactions and that the agencies involved , particularly the NNPCL, has refused to cooperate with it in terms of accurate records .

” We don’t have direct involvement in all the issues raised and required provision of financial records from the affected agencies , particularly NNPCL, NUPRC etc , is not there .

” In resolving the financial issues , we have engaged a reputable external audit firm ,
Arthur Andersen LLP to carry out forensic audit on all the transactions for required reconciliation “, he said .

But the committee chaired by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwabo ( Gombe North) , took him up on when report on the forensic audit would be ready after extending it twice 6 months to one year.

He however insisted that NNPCL and NUPRC , should be made to be at the same session with Ministry of Finance over the issues .

He said : ““I I know you have enormous powers that you can use to compel these agencies to appear before us. We are having challenges bringing them to the table so that we can resolve these issues.

“We in the Federal Ministry of Finance are ready to come and sit with them here, so that you can hear directly from them and obtain the necessary explanations and clarifications”.

But the Chairman of the Committee told the permanent secretary to arrange the meeting with the affected agencies as issues involved are not only being followed in Nigeria but internationally .

“I will like you to review the internal report and arrange a meeting involving the Ministry of Finance, the NUPRC, NNPC and any other agency whose participation is necessary to resolve the issues we have raised.

“As you are aware, these issues are being followed by the international community. They are not matters confined to Nigeria; they are in the public domain and are being monitored by people across the world.

“Therefore, if there are records or issues that need to be clarified and properly put in order, we should do so in the interest of our country. All of us have no other country except Nigeria”, he said .

By Our Correspondent

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday commenced the distribution of reprinted ballot papers and result sheets to agents of all participating political parties across the 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Osun State ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

The exercise commenced at the Commission’s state office in Osogbo on Thursday night, following INEC’s compliance with a Federal High Court judgment ordering the inclusion of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate, Dr. Francis Olugbenga Ajala, and his running mate, Faseke Babajimi Oladipo, in the election.

The Federal High Court, Abuja, had on July 22, 2026, delivered judgment in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/344/2026, directing INEC to recognise, accept, upload, process and publish Ajala’s candidature for the August 15 governorship election.

INEC complied with the judgment on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, leading to the reproduction of the ballot papers and relevant result sheets to reflect the inclusion of the SDP candidates.

The reprinted materials were subsequently moved to the Osun State INEC office in Osogbo, where agents of the participating political parties gathered on Thursday night to witness the distribution process.

Speaking to journalists at the venue, the Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Oluwatoyin O. Babalola, explained that the exercise would commence with the signing of the result sheets by the party agents before the distribution of the materials to the respective Local Government Areas.

Babalola said the materials had already been customised according to the polling units for which they were intended, with the names of the polling units clearly indicated on the documents.

“Everything is going to be customised. Believe it. All the results, they already have the name of the polling units on them,” the REC told journalists.

She explained that the customisation was intended to ensure that the materials could be properly identified and matched with their designated polling units during the electoral process.

According to her, the signing by party agents was an important part of the documentation process preceding the distribution of the materials.

“If you are signing, you see what happened,” she said, while explaining the procedure to the agents and journalists at the venue.

The REC also indicated that the materials had been prepared in a manner that would allow the Commission and the political parties to keep track of the documents allocated to the various areas.

The exercise was not, however, a distribution of the materials directly to polling units.

Rather, the reprinted ballot papers and result sheets were being distributed to agents of the participating political parties for the respective 30 Local Government Areas of Osun State.

The party agents were present at the INEC office to witness the process, beginning with the signing of the result sheets before the materials were handed over for the respective Local Government Areas.