By Seyi Babalola
Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has stated that the Commission is ready to hold a credible governorship election in Edo State.
Yakubu offered this pledge following last Friday’s torrential downpour, which wrecked essential infrastructure at the same INEC headquarters, stating that the devastated facilities will be fixed or rebuilt.
According to him, because the Edo governorship election is an off-cycle election, the Commission would also borrow equipment from adjacent states to guarantee a smooth process.
Yakubu spoke in Benin City while inspecting of the damaged facilities. He also monitored the level of compliance with the on-going Continuous Voters Registration, CVR, and collection of Permanent Voters Cards, PVC.
He said the Commission was prepared for the election in Edo State and the next one in Ondo, where he said the CVR would commence very soon.
He said, “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 and that is why we came here to inspect what happened to our facility on Friday last week so there is no immediate plan to relocate, we believe from what is here we can fix them before the election and it is better actually that we conduct the election in our own facilities rather than going to rent any facility outside close to 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.”
