Accreditation and voting in the by-election for Akoko North-East and Akoko North-West Federal Constituency commenced at 8:30a.m. across the two Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The seat for the Federal Constituency in the House of Representative, hitherto occupied by Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, became vacant following his appointment as Minister for Interior by President Bola Tinubu.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that eight candidates jostling to fill the position are from African Democratic Congress, All Progressives Congress, Social Democratic Party, Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party.
Others are All Progressives Grand Alliance, New Nigeria Peoples Party and Actions People Party.
At some of the polling units visited by NAN correspondent, officials of INEC were seen attending to the electorate while security personnel were seen quietly observing the exercise.
At Iyometa ward 1, Unit 1 and Ikado Ward 2, Unit 5 in Ikare-Akoko as well as Ugbe Akoko, Ward 3, Unit 2, election commenced at 8:30am
Speaking with NAN, Mr Paul Marvelous, the Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPO) at Ikado Ward 2, Unit 5, said that accreditation and voting commenced at 8.30a.m. and as at 9.00a.m. 45 people had voted.
He said that the unit had sufficient configured Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and backup for the number of voters in each polling units and there had been no reported issues with the machines. (NAN)
By Mufutau Ogunyemi
