Voting has commenced in different parts of Nigeria for the West African country’s governorship and state assembly elections.

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had arrived polling units across the country with voting materials and set up sensitive and non-sensitive materials in the 176,606 polling units scattered across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Accreditation and voting commenced in most voting units at 08:30am. According to INEC, 87, 209,007 Nigerians have Permanent Voter Cards. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines are being deployed in the polling units observed by Channels Television’s correspondent.

Security officials including policemen are also seen at the polling units.

With February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections concluded and results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, albeit with the attendant legal tussles following, the battlegrounds have shifted to states.

In all, 18 political parties fielded candidates for the governorship elections slated to hold in 28 out of the 36 states of the Federation.

This is so because the governorship elections of eight states (Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo) are held off-season due to litigations and court judgements.

Be it as it may, elections for members of state legislature will hold in the 36 states of the Federation.

Thousands of candidates are competing for 993 State Houses of Assembly seats. This data is according to statistics by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In alphabetical order, the 28 states where governorship elections will hold on March 18, 2023 are: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara.

See more photos: