Yakubu Mahmood, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured the residents of Edo State of the commission’s readiness to conduct free, fair and credible election in the state.
He gave the assurance when he undertook an on-the-spot assessment visit to the three local government areas where the commission has its offices in the state. The areas visited by Mahmood include Egor, Ikpoba Okha and Oredo Local Government Areas of the state.
Addressing journalists after the inspection exercise in Benin, Mahmood said from his assessment, the commission is fully armed to the teeth for the governorship election in the state and that the electorate has nothing to worry about.
“This is our readiness assessment visit to Edo State and the purpose is to visit some of the local government areas we have visited three to assess their readiness in terms of the level of preparations and materials received so far and how they are organising the election in the next 11 days and thereafter, we have also visited two centres to observe the Mock Accreditation exercise.
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“We intended to test run the integrity of our systems ahead of the election and those for voter’s registration as well as the upload of the results to the IREV portal.
“We have observed, so far so good, in terms of readiness of our local government offices for the election and also the technology that we are deploying for the election, everything is in perfect condition”.
Mahmood added that the commission under his watch has done its best, noting that it now behoves the electorate to come out en-emass to vote for the candidates of their choice as the commission would uphold the choice of the candidate made by them.
“INEC is not a political party, therefore, we don’t have a candidate in this election.
“The responsibility for choosing the 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 troop out to vote for the party of their choice and the candidate of their choice and the Commission will always protect the integrity of the person and uphold the choice made by the electorate”, Mahmood said.
While giving the assurance on the preparedness of INEC to write its name on gold, he said, “It has always been the intention of the commission to organise a good election and I have given assurances on the level of preparations on the part of the commission and that is why I am personally in Edo State.
“And let me use this opportunity to appeal to other stakeholders as well, election is a multi-stakeholder activity, including the security agencies, the political parties, the candidates, the observers even the media.
“We have enough backup. For instance, all the machines used for the mock in 12 polling units across three senatorial districts in Edo state will not be used for the election.
“So, the BVAS that will be used for the election are different from BVAS for the Mock and similarly the BVAS machines that will be used for the training will not be deployed for the election.”
