Mahmood Yakubu: We are confident Anambra election would hold

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said the commission was confident that Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State would be peaceful and successful owing to adequate arrangements put in place.

Yakubu spoke on Tuesday during a meeting with members of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security in Awka, the Anambra capital.

Speaking on election safety, he said security agencies have also done everything within their power to ensure that the environment is secured for the conduct of a free and fair election.

Mahmood, further reassured all registered voters in Anambra that Saturday’s election is going to be free, fair, credible, adding that there was no going back on the election.

According to him, “The election is holding this weekend. Let me thank, first and foremost, the security agencies for your continuous support and also seize the opportunity to reassure the people of Anambra State that the election is holding on Saturday as scheduled,” he said.

“The commission has done everything that it can to ensure that the election holds. The security agencies have also done whatever they can and are doing whatever that they can to ensure that the environment is secured for us to conduct free and fair elections in the state.

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“On the part of the commission, we want to reassure all registered voters in Anambra that the election is going to be free, fair, and credible.

“Cards for all new registrants have been printed, delivered to Anambra state, and are right now being collected in all the LGAs of the state. So, there are no issues with the cards.

“Beyond that, because of the technology we deployed for the registration of voters, we can harvest the telephone numbers as well as the email address of new registrants for those who have email addresses. We have contacted every one of the 41,000 registered voters either by text messages to their mobile phones or by email addresses and advised them on where to collect their PVCs.

“I would like to appeal to all registered voters in the 21 local government areas of Anambra state to come out on Saturday to vote for a candidate or party of their choice.”