Despite last Friday’s heavy rain which destroyed critical infrastructure in its Edo State office, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised to conduct a credible governorship election in September this year.
INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said the office would not be relocated as the affected infrastructure would be repaired or replaced before the election is held.
He said since the Edo governorship election is off-cycle, the commission would borrow equipment from neighbouring states to ensure a hitch-free exercise.
Yakubu stated this in Benin City yesterday when he inspected the damage to the office facilities and monitored compliance with the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) and the collection of permanent voter cards (PVCs).
Accompanied by senior personnel of the commission from the national headquarters and the state, the INEC boss said he also came for a visit with three national directors in charge of critical areas of the commission such as voters registry, estate, works and transport and ICT to assess the level of damage to their facilities including the state controller of the Federal Ministry of Works which would carry out construction work on the facilities.
He ruled out moving out of the place because of its perennial flooding.
Yakubu said the commission was prepared for the elections in Edo State and the next one, which is in Ondo State, where he said the CVR would commence very soon.
According to him, “Our visit here is to ensure that we fix whatever we need to fix because of the election. We have three months and three weeks to the election, so we came here to inspect what happened to our facility on Friday last week. There is no immediate plan to relocate; we believe from what is here, we can fix them before the election, and it is better that we conduct the election in our facilities rather than rent any facility close to the election.
“Before the last governorship election in Edo, we took measures, and for three years since the last governorship election, we have had no issues, but this is an act of God.”
On whether he could quantify the cost of damage in the facility, Yakubu said, “It is very difficult to quantify now. We are on the assessment. That is why, in this tour, we have been joined by three critical directors responsible for the voter’s registry, estate, works and transport at the Headquarters, and our director of ICT, so they will stay behind, do the assessment, and advise the commission.”
He assured that despite the setbacks, the commission was ready for the election. “Let me use this opportunity to assure and reassure Edo voters that it is unfortunate that this thing happened in our office on Friday; we took a proactive measure to ensure that CVR was not affected by calling for additional resources from the neighbouring states.
“Whatever it takes, since INEC is one national body and we are only going to have two elections in Edo and Ondo states, I will call for additional resources where it is necessary from neighbouring states and the elections will proceed as scheduled and we will recover from this unfortunate incident.”
Whether the ten days for the CVR would be extended as being agitated in some quarters, Professor Yakubu said “We have not reached there yet; we will go round and see what happened; we are encouraged by the turnout not only of fresh registrants, that is persons who are registered voters or who are not of age when the last registration exercise was done so we are encouraged by the turn out not only of the fresh registrants but also by those who are applying for transfers, relocation and the replacement of PVCs, we are encouraged by that when we get to the bridge, we will cross it.”
Earlier, the resident electoral commissioner (REC), Dr Anugbum Onuoha, said the flood could be a blessing in disguise as it had prepared them for the election.