The Independent National Electoral Commission in Osun State announced ahead of the governorship election on August 15, 2026, that it has identified 200 challenging terrain areas and roughly 385 flashpoints in the state.
This was disclosed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Oluwatoyin Babalola, while speaking at a meeting convened by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of South West, Adegoke Fayoade, with heads of security agencies, religious leaders, electoral officials and the media.
The meeting, held at the Osun State command headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force in Osogbo on Friday, was also attended by the Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Gotan.
Babalola, speaking on INEC’s preparation for the poll, said details of the risk assessment exercise done by the commission across the 30 local government areas in the state had been shared with the heads of all security agencies in the state.
“We have also conducted risk management training because we are currently in our amber zone. We have field officers who will be in the field for ground truthing to carry out risk assessments in different locations across the 30 local government areas.
“We identified 385 flashpoints in the state, which have been shared with the security agencies. We also identified difficult terrains to guide their operations, because there are still places in the state that are not motorable and cannot be easily accessed.
“We identified about 200 such areas, and we have been training our staff on how to manage themselves and maintain peace. I have visited 29 out of the 30 local government areas in the state,” Babalola said.
The REC further said that she visited Ila and Ifedayo local government areas, where there were cases of kidnapping, adding that she got assurances from the security agencies that there would be peace before and after the election.
