Okwe Obi, Benin
Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu has warned staff against compromising the governorship election in Edo State.
Mahmood who gave the warning yesterday, while inspecting election materials in Ikpoba , Egor and Oredo Local Governments in Benin, advised them to be professional and neutral during the exercise.
He added that the Commission had ordered for about 3,000 Infrared Thermometer for polling units and voting points from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and maintained that electorate must wear masks.
He said: “In the same vain we are not against any political party or the candidate either, our concern is the integrity and transparency of the process. I am confident you will not let the commission down.
“We were here four years ago and the lesson we learnt is that we must be able to speed the process and declared the result on time because longer it takes the more it became problematic to manage it so we must get logistics right.”
He added that “We have made compulsory the wearing of face mask and the use of hand sanitizers and we have made provision for that.
“So we have made a request to the PTF to avail us with about 3,000 Infrared Thermometer for polling units and voting points.
“But on our own, we have made provision for 192 ward collation centres and when PTF is able to avail us, we would extend it to the collation center in the 18 local government and the state collation centres.
“At the collation centres we have made provision for Infrared Thermometer and we are working to extend this to polling units.
“You are required to manage the polling unit in a manner that we have not been doing before as the cubicle would be demarcated in a manner that will give two-meter distance between voters since it is going to be accreditation and voting.”
Menwhile, the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem, said all arrangements for the September 19 governorship election, including the training of EOs, AEOs among others, have been concluded, adding that the only challenge was the reduction of the budget.