The Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said that plans have been made to mop up some of the uncollected Permanent Voter Cards across the 18 local government areas of Edo State.
He disclosed this in Benin, during a stakeholders meeting ahead of the Edo State governorship election.
He said the PVCs which are going to be mopped up by the commission, would be warehoused in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) until after the governorship election.
Prof. Yakubu, who said Edo State now has a total of 2,629,025 registered voters, added that in their commitment to transparency, the Commission has made available soft copies of the entire register of voters to each political party fielding candidates in the forthcoming election.
Yakubu added that in the next few days, the commission would publish the breakdown of PVCs collected for each of the 4,519 Polling Units across the state.
The INEC boss, while saying that all hands must be on the deck to make the job of conducting election easy, said the election is a multi-stakeholder activity and that INEC has a role to play but this must be complemented by stakeholders.
He said that the 2024 Edo State Governorship election is not just a national election, but also of global interest, pointing out that the commission has so far accredited 134 groups (124 domestic and 10 international) deploying 1,836 observers across the State.
Speaking further he said : “We have accredited 114 media organisations deploying 721 journalists.
“We have also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties at the 4,730 polling and collation locations made up of 4,519 polling units, 192 ward collation centres, 18 Local Government collation centres and the State Collation Centre.
“I want to assure you that the accreditation tags for all categories of stakeholders are ready.
“We will announce the date and venue for collection in the next 24 hours. Similarly, election duty vehicle stickers are available for collection from our Edo State office here in Benin City.”
The INEC boss maintained that the commission has made arrangements for land and maritime transportation of personnel and materials.
He also said that the commission has arranged for the delivery of sensitive materials for the election to Edo State early next week, just as he said that they would be inviting political parties and other stakeholders for the usual inspection of the materials at the Central Bank here in Benin ahead of the delivery to the Local Government Areas.
He said that the commission is leaving no stone unturned in its preparations for the election, always in consultation with the stakeholders.
He, however, urged the political parties to play their own part positively in delivering yet another credible governorship election in the state.
While speaking on the Peace Accord to be signed by the various political parties, he said: “I would like to remind you that tomorrow, Thursday 12th September 2024, the Peace Accord involving parties and candidates will be signed at 10.00am at this venue.
“Our respected former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar GCFR, will preside over the occasion in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Peace Committee.
“Some of you here may recall that exactly four years ago in September 2020, Edo State made history as the first state in Nigeria that the Peace Accord was signed ahead of a governorship election.
“I trust that you will honour the Peace Committee by your presence here tomorrow and, most importantly, abide by the terms of the Accord for a peaceful election”.