Security has  been beefed up in Offa Local Government Area of   Kwara,  ahead of  Saturday's  local government re-run election, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

A NAN correspondent,  who visited the council area  on Friday,  reports that police patrol vehicles  were sighted  moving round every nook and cranny  of the town.

The atmosphere, however, remained  tense as the two leading parties in the area, PDP  and  APC,  rounded off  their campaigns.

Mr Yerima Gana, the Kwara State Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, said  he  would deploy 600  personnel to  the council for the poll.

Gana disclosed this when he paid a visit to the Offa  office of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) on Friday.

He expressed the command's  preparedness to support other law enforcement agencies to ensure  a peaceful, free and fair election in Offa.

In his remarks, the KWASIEC chairman, Abdulrahman Ajidagba, thanked the commandant for the support and expressed the commission's readiness for a peaceful poll.

Ajidagba said  284 adhoc staff  had  been engaged for the conduct of the  re-run election in the council.

Meanwhile, the Olofa of Offa,  Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, has appealed to the people to be law abiding and embrace peace to achieve a peaceful election.

The traditional ruler,  in a message to the people,  noted that the community was in dire need of peaceful co-existence in reinvigorating  the community's economy.

''What we need now is peace and nothing but absolute peace.

''We should, as a community, live in harmonious relationship and embrace peaceful coexistence  for  even development of our community.

''I want to appeal to the political class to embrace peace and avoid do-or-die  politics  in the interest of the people," Gbadamosi said. (NAN)