Despite IReV ‘Glitch’, INEC’s Mahmood Yakubu Assures Edo State Electorates Of Flawless Election

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has assured Edo State electorates of a “transparent and credible” gubernatorial election scheduled for Saturday, September 21, 2024.

The electoral chief disclosed this on Tuesday, September 10, during his visit to Ikpoba Okha, Egor, and Oredo Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Edo State to inspect non-sensitive election materials for the election.

Accompanied by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Edo State, Dr Anugbum Onuaha and other team members, the electoral commission stated the visit was to “verify and address any potential issues before the governorship election.”

The purpose is to visit some of the local governments to assess the readiness in terms of the level of preparation, the materials received so far, and how they [LGAs] are organising the elections,” Yakubu stated to the press.

In addition, the visit, according to the commission, aimed to “ensure that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the uploading of scanned polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal” are functioning as it conducted a mock accreditation of voters at selected polling units.

These assurances, however, have sparked public voters’ criticism, considering some of the unfavourable experiences with the agency’s transparency in the 2023 general election.

It will be recalled that the last election conducted by INEC lacked transparency, as it was marred with violence and voter disenfranchisement.

Despite the lack of transparency, the election led to the announcement of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President of Nigeria despite failing to meet the constitutional requirements.

Meanwhile, the electoral chief, Yakubu, has assured Nigerians, particularly Edo State electorates, that the governorship election due in 10 days will be “flawless”.

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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