The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the commission has received over 9,777 requests for additional polling units across the country.
Yakubu said this during a sensitization visit on the creation of additional polling units to the Arewa Consultative Forum in Kaduna on Tuesday.
The INEC chairman noted that there was growing demand for the creation of additional polling units, saying as from October 2020 when the commission received 5,700 requests for additional polling units, the number of requests have increased to 4,077 in just 4 months.
He added that the commission created 119,973 polling units in 1996 and for the past 25years no additional polling unit has been created.
“Since 1999, the nation had conducted six general elections using the same polling units. The growing demands by Nigerians for additional polling units are increasing by the day.
“We did not ask them to forward their request but they did that unsolicited. In fact, there is one request we received from a person requesting for about 800 polling units in his area.
“As of yesterday, the 15th February 2021 we have received 9,777 additional requests for polling units,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the ACF, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was represented by ACF’s National Secretary, Murtala Aliyu, has advised Nigerians to desist from politicizing the creation of additional polling units across the country.