The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said the commission was fully prepared for the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
Mahmood, who spoke when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters, said he had not received any report of any likely threat to security during the election.
He admitted that a political party had complained about likely security breaches during the election when he led national commissioners on a visit to the state, but pointed out that no report of any security threat had been received from any political party or candidate.
He revealed that at a recent meeting with political parties at the INEC office in Benin, the state Commissioner of Police gave the assurance that any report on likely security breaches would be taken up with the state government.
The INEC boss said: “As we speak, we have less than 60 days to the election in Edo State and about 100 days to the election in Ondo State. Is the commission prepared for the elections? We are prepared for the election.
“I must also say that this commission in particular has a history of having conducted three governorship elections in each of the two states. We conducted the 2016 governorship election in Edo, in 2020 September and now in September 2024.
“In Ondo, we conducted the election in October 2016, in 2020 and by God’s grace, in November 2024. So, these are states where we have conducted previous elections successfully.
“I led a team of commissioners to the two states and we interfaced with the stakeholders, particularly political parties and held meetings with the security agencies.
“In terms of our preparations, we don’t anticipate much problems in spite of the unfortunate flooding in our office in Edo. This is not the first time. In 2020, we operated from a rented office. But this time around, thank God the act of God came early and so, we have enough time to respond and to conduct the election in our own facility. The election will be held within our own premises.
“What is our concern for the Edo State governorship election? Just like any other election, it is security.
“When we were there (Edo), one of the political parties raised an issue about the likely deployment of the ESSN, (the Edo State Security Network).
“Immediately we received the complaint, we headed to the office of the Commissioner of Police and held a meeting with all security agencies in Edo State.
“At that meeting, we agreed that we are going to meet with all the political parties in our office and we did so. The Commissioner of Police told us that he will take up the matter with the state government. The issue at that time was the issue of the Continuous Voter Registration.
“Since then, I am not aware of any complaint from any party or candidate on the role of the ESSN. So, I believe that the Commissioner of Police must have spoken to the leadership of the ESSN. For now, so far so good. I said so far so good. But we have 57 days ahead of the election.”
Juliet Akoje
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