Idahosa Moses – Benin City
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured Nigerians of its readiness to conduct free, fair and credible elections, beginning with the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Giving the assurance while fielding questions from our correspondent, the state Head of Voter Education and Publicity of INEC, Timidi Wariowei, said that out of the total number of 2,501, 081 registered voters in Edo, 1,996,088 have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
He disclosed that 504,996 PVCs are yet to be collected, explaining that prior to the 2021 Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), the state INEC was in possession of 399,149 old (uncollected) PVCs.
Wariowei, speaking on the preparation of the INEC said the commission upon receipt distributed about 95% of the non-sensitive materials to its local government offices in Edo.
He added that some of the sensitive materials for the elections have arrived in the state and are currently kept in the Edo State Branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN).
He said: “Some of the sensitive materials are already at the state branch of CBN, which will be later taken to local government offices in the state for the election.
“We have received all the BVAS machines that the commission will be using
for the accreditation of voters and they are all ready for the elections in the state.
“The Commission’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department has started configuring the BVAS machines that we are going to use for the election in Edo. In the next few days, they will conclude the configuring of the BVAS.
“We are going with our programmes as scheduled in our timetable. We have done a lot in terms of preparation.
“As we speak (Thursday), about 95% of the non-sensitive materials have arrived at the state office and we have also sent them to the local government offices.
“I want to assure everybody that the commission is ready for the election and nothing will stop the commission from conducting the elections,” he assured.
On the issue of training, the INEC Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Edo said some ad-hoc staff including Supervisory Presiding Officers t have been trained and are ready for the election in the state.
Wariowei noted that the state INEC would be conducting a 3-day training, beginning from Friday 17 – Sunday 19, February 2023 for its Presiding and Assistant Presiding Officers, while the training of the Registration Area Technicians (RATECs) is expected to commence at weekend.
He stated: “Collation and Returning Officers who are recruited from INEC Headquarters will also be trained early next week before we will post them to their various wards and local government for the election.”
While commenting on the recently test-run BVAS Mock Accreditation of Voters exercise in the state, Wariowei, described the exercise as a huge success, stressing that the essence was for the commission to test-run the use of the BVAS machine, as well as to create awareness about the BVAS to the people.
He maintained that some of the issues identified during the mock accreditation exercise, though not peculiar to Edo State alone have been addressed by the commission, just as Wariowei stated that the commission would be meeting with the media, Civil Society Organisations(CSOs) and other stakeholders with a view to sensitising the electorates about the migration of polling units of some voters.
Speaking to our correspondent on phone, the Public Relations Officer of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Edo State Command, Mr Richard Ogbebor, said the command is fully ready to provide security before, during and after the election.
He disclosed that the NSCDC have in the past week sensitised the people on the need to embrace peace in the state, assuring that the command would be deploying his men across the state in collaboration with other security agencies towards ensuring the election is peaceful.
All attempts to speak with the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of state Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, Thursday on phone proved abortive as he later told our correspondent to call back on Friday.
