Edo guber: INEC chairman confirms release of funds

By Jude Opara

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), yesterday said it has received the funds for the conduct of the off-cycle Edo State governorship election.
Peoples Daily reports that the Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this during the inspection of the Commission’s facilities in preparation for the conduct of the election slated for September 21, 2024 in Benin City.
According to him, all the funds for the election have been received and released to the state and the 18 local government offices before the recent increase of the fuel price.
Yakubu also expressed the Commission’s satisfaction for the non-sensitive facilities already on ground for the conduct of the election.
“Our visit to Edo State is a routine activity of the Commission on the eve of major off-cycle elections. This is a readiness assessment visit to the state, and the purpose is to visit some of the local government areas.
“We have visited three local government areas to assess the readiness in terms of the level of preparation, the materials received so far and how they are organising the election in the next 11 days.
“We have already visited two centers to observe a mock accreditation exercise intended to test run the integrity of our systems ahead of the election, both for voter accreditation as well as upload of the results to IREC portal.
We are satisfied with the level of preparation by the local government offices in the three offices we have visited, namely, Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba/Okha, as well as the two centers we have visited for the mock exercise. I think we are good to go.
“We have observed, and so far, so good in terms of readiness of our local government offices for the election and also in terms of the technology we are deploying for the election,” he said.
He, however, assured the Edo people of the Commission’s commitment to conduct credible, fair and free election, noting that the Commission as an umpire does not have a candidate.
The INEC chairman noted that the responsibility of choosing the next governor of the state was entirely in the hands of the electorate who would vote during the election.
“My assurance to everyone in Edo State is, on the part of the Commission, we keep saying that INEC is not a political party, therefore, we don’t have a candidate in the election. The responsibility of choosing the next governor of Edo State is entirely in the hands of Edo voters,” he added.