On Friday, August 15, 2025, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) announced the deployment of 20,850 personnel to ensure the protection of lives, election materials, and Critical National Assets and Infrastructure (CNAI) during the by-elections scheduled for Saturday, August 16, 2025, in 16 constituencies across 12 states, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). In a statement by NSCDC Public Relations Officer Babatunde Afolabi, Commandant-General Dr. Ahmed Audi emphasized the corps’ readiness to collaborate with the Nigeria Police Force, the lead agency, to secure officials and monitor the electoral process in Anambra, Edo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Ogun, Oyo, Taraba, Kogi, Kano, Niger, and other affected states, per Punch and Naija News.
Audi directed state commandants to uphold professionalism and respect citizens’ rights, urging voters to exercise their franchise freely. The by-elections, conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will fill two senatorial seats, five federal constituencies, and nine state constituencies, using 7,726 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, per MSN. The NSCDC’s deployment follows reports of 617,887 registered voters in Edo alone, with 101,617 uncollected PVCs (The Sun). X posts from @MobilePunch and @NewTelegraphNIG (August 15, 2025) highlighted the security measures, while @Naija_Activist raised concerns about INEC’s neutrality, citing past glitches in result transmission. The operation aims to ensure a hitch-free process amid Nigeria’s ongoing security challenges, with 1,100 weekly fibre cuts affecting connectivity (NCC, 2025).
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