Edo INEC Office Flooding: Commission Says Election On Course

By Ayodele Oni

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that September governorship election in Edo state will go as scheduled, despite the flood incident which ravaged the commission’s office in Benin city.

The commission promised that it would replace all facilities damaged by flood in its Edo headquarters office, before the poll.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu gave the assurance on Thursday in Benin, when he visited the state for on the spot assessment of the impacts of last week flooding on the state office.

Yakubu also assured Edo people that in spite the setback caused by the flood, INEC would continue with the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in the state.

“We are here basically to see for ourselves what happened to our facilities following the unexpected torrential rainfall and the flooding that occurred. Equally importantly for us to come and meet with you who are the staff in the Edo office.

“We thank God no life was lost. We thank God no injuries. But we want to assure you that in spite of the extensive damage, we have recovered to do the continuous voter registration exercise and we will recover to conduct the governorship election in September.

“We have three months and three weeks to the election today. So whatever we have lost in terms of critical equipment, whatever support facilities we need to replace, whatever office furniture and facilities we need to replace, we will do so.”

He said the commission would salvage some of the equipment that can be reclaimed, then mobilized resources from neighbouring states to replace the shortfalls for the successful conduct of the state election.

Yakubu, who was accompanied by some INEC national commissioners; Federal Controller, Federal Ministry of Works in Edo, Hassan Babatunde, said he came with a team that would help to assess the level of loss to the flood and way forward.

“We are also accompanied by the director of ICT because of what happened to some of the critical facilities for the election.

“Whatever we need for the forthcoming Edo governorship election we will make sure that we provide these facilities.

“Fortunately for us this is an off-cycle election so we can rely on our resources from the neighboring states for the election.

“It is only in a general election that each state office must be self-sufficient, but here we will call for additional resources from the neighboring states to ensure that there are no issues with the election.

“The present commission has a lot of experience in handling the Edo governorship election. For me personally this is going to be my third governorship election in Edo.

“We conducted the 2016 election. We conducted the September 2020 election and by God’s grace we are approaching the September 2024 election. So the CVR which is ongoing will not be affected.

“Whatever issues and challenges there, we will listen to the REC and its team and we will continue to respond.”