2023: INEC Chairman Visits Ogun, assures Nigerians of credible polls
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday assures that series of attacks on its facilities in some parts of the country, would not in any way affect the outcome of the 2023 general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance during his on the spot assessment of the Abeokuta South local government office of the commission that was set ablaze by unknown arsonists.
Prof. Yakubu, equally assured the people of Abeokuta South local government that none of them will be disenfranchised during the forthcoming elections, stressing that all the 65,699 Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) that were destroyed in the fire disaster would be reprinted and distributed before the elections.
His words, “the purpose of our visit to this office is to further access the extent of damage, to meet our own staff, particularly in the place where they have relocated to in Oke-Ilewo, to boost their morale and to assure the people of Abeokuta South that inspite of this unfortunate incident, elections will hold in Abeokuta South in 2023”.
“Whatever materials we have lost, the commission is making efforts to replace them. We lost 65,699 PVCs. We want to assure all those that have not collected their PVCs who may have been affected by the fire disaster that we are making plans to reprint the PVCs quickly and to bring them back to Abeokuta South for people to collect and vote”.
“We want to assure the people of Abeokuta South that this incident, terrible as it is, will not deter and will not discourage us. Will not discourage our staff from conducting the 2023 general elections and we want to once again assure the people of Abeokuta South, the people of Ogun State and the people of Nigeria that the commission is determined to make the 2023 elections our best ever, we will not be deterred, we cowed by act of arson by undemocratic and retrogressive elements”.
“As soon we get the VIN numbers to be harvested by the State office, we will reprint. It doesn’t take longer than two days to print 65,000 PVCs, but we have to get the Voter Identification Numbers for the cards that were lost so that we can quickly reprint”.
It is very disappointing, particularly because in that last four months, five of our offices were attacked nationwide, but this will never deter us, we will make sure that we replace burnt and destroyed equipment and also reprint the PVCs and conduct elections.
He enjoined stakeholders, political parties, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), security agencies and the media to remain confident that elections will hold inspite of the temporary setback witnessed by the commission in recent times.
Prof. Yakubu debunked a rumour that a Court directed the commission to resume the continuous voter registration exercise.
He said, the court never made that judgement, in fact, the court said that INEC should proceed with its preparations for the elections. The court never said that INEC should resume the continuous voters’ registration.
Earlier, the INEC Chairman paid homage to Alake and Paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, who prayed for the success of the forthcoming general elections, expressing confidence in the ability of the INEC Chairman in conducting free, fair and credible elections.
