National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu is on a 3 day assessment visit to Edo State, to ascertain the commission’s readiness for the September 21 Governorship off-cycle election.
Professor Mahmood visited the stores of four Local Government Areas, LGAs, in Edo state to inspect none-sensitive materials meant for a smooth, free, fair, and credible off-cycle governorship election.
The INEC Chairman’s first port of call was the INEC office at Ikpoba-Okha LGA where he was taken on a tour of the store by the Commission’s State Electoral Officer, EO, Mr. James Gamble who also answered questions posed by the Chairman on the preparedness of the local branch.
Satisfied with what he met on the ground, Professor Mahmood headed to Egor LGA where the EO, Mr. Boma Bamson conducted Yakubu round the office complex and showed him the none sensitive materials ready for the election day deployment and utilisation.
‘My assurance to everyone in Edo state is, on the pa
rt of the commission, we keep saying this. INEC is not a political party therefore we don’t have a candidate in this election.
‘The responsibility of chosing the next governor of Edo state is entirely in the hands of Edo voters and our assurance to all the registered voters in Edo state is to troup out to vote for the party of their choice and the candidate if their choice and the commission will always protect the integrity of the process and uphold the choice made by the electorate.
‘We are satisfied with all the level of preparation of our local government offices in the three offices we have visited- Oredo, Egor and Ikpeoba Okha- as well as the two centres we have visited for the mock exercise. I think we are good to go.
He however admitted that there were little logistic issues that needed to be addressed.
He said that his meeting with the Electoral Officers in the 18 local government areas of the state was aimed at harvesting the issues with a view to addressing them.
‘Well, there are little, littl
e issues that we are going to address, like some of the non sensitive materials but with the 11 days to the election, I’m absolutely certain that by the end of this week, we will address those issues.
‘But in addition, I’m also going to speak with all the EOs in the 18 local government, not just the local government we visited and this is going to happen on Thursday after the signing of the national peace accord. So I’m going to speak with all the EOs and we will harvest all the concerns.
‘That’s why we are here ahead of the elections, so that we can respond to any issues that they may raise,’ the INEC Chairman said.
Other activities on Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s schedule include ?meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ?ICCES, at the INEC State Office, signing of the Peace Accord by all political parties fielding candidates for the election under the auspices of the National Peace Committee, chaired by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Confidence Okwuchi
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urce: Voice of Nigeria