Ahead of the Edo State Governorship election, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Tuesday, said the Commission has made significant progress in recovering from the flooding of its State Headquarters in Benin City, Edo State which occurred two months ago.
Yakubu who disclosed this at the third quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja, assured that the incident would not affect the forthcoming election.
Edo State will hold its governorship election on 21 September.
The flood which occurred in May affected some of the voter enrollment machines configured for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in the state.
“I am glad to report that we have recovered from the torrential rainfall that resulted in the severe flooding of our State Headquarters in Benin City two months ago. The damage to the physical infrastructure as well as movable and immovable facilities are being fixed or replaced,” Yakubu said.
“We have delivered additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to Edo State for the training of election duty personnel as well as contingency for Election Day support.”
The INEC boss disclosed that the final voter register for the forthcoming Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo state is being finalised following the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), display of the register for claims and objections by citizens, and further data clean-up using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
He said the commission would soon publish the final figures of new voters in the two States as well as their distribution by gender, age, occupation and disability.
Yakubu added the timetable for the collection of uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) from previous registration, and new registrants from the latest CVR, would also be published.
He said: As the Edo State Governorship approaches, I wish to remind CSOs to submit the list of your observers by uploading the required information, including photographs, to the dedicated portal. As at Monday July 29, 2024, 56 organisations have uploaded the details of 894 observers for the Edo State Governorship election representing 33.6 per cent of the expected 2,660 observers. The deadline is Wednesday July 31, 2024 when the portal automatically shuts down at 6pm. I urge you to ensure that you meet the deadline so that the Commission can produce the accreditation tags and deliver them to you for distribution to your observers in good time.
“At the same time, the Commission is aware that some organisations have not only responded in good time but have also requested for additional slots for observers to deploy across the two States.
“The Commission will consider such requests on a case-by-case basis depending on the organisation’s previous experience, size, capacity, and record of compliance with the guidelines and code of conduct for election observation.
While appealing to the CSOs to intensify their advocacy for peaceful elections, including engagement with stakeholders, Yakubu expressed concern over the recent event in Edo State resulting in the death of a security personnel.
“Happily, there has been no incident known to the Commission since then. Nevertheless, the Commission will meet with the security agencies as early as Friday this week under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES),” Yakubu said.
“I want to assure you that security in Edo and Ondo will be a major issue for discussion at the meeting. We are as concerned about the safety of candidates, agents and supporters as we are about the security of our officials, observers, journalists, service providers and, above all, the voters.”
