The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said on Tuesday that burnt permanent voter cards in Ogun and four other states would be reprinted in two days, and that efforts are in top gear towards replacing the materials lost to the inferno.
Suspected Arsonists had on November 10 attacked the Abeokuta South Local Government Area and destroyed over 65,000 uncollected PVCs among others.
Yakubu who arrived in Abeokuta around 9am and paid a visit to the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, also visited the new Oke-Ilewo office where the staff members were relocated to and later visited the burnt office.
Apart from Ogun State, the hoodlums had recently attacked INEC offices in Osun and Ebonyi states.
The INEC boss while speaking with newsmen after he assessed the extent of damage, described the arsonists as “undemocratic and retrogressive elements.”
Yakubu said the commission would not be cowed from conducting next year’s elections by arsonists attacking the commission’s facilities nationwide.
He vowed that the commission would not be intimidated by an act of arson despite that five facilities were attacked nationwide in the last four months.
He said: “The purpose of our visit to this office is to further access the extent of damage, to meet our staff, particularly in the place where they have relocated to in Oke-Ilewo, to boost their morale and to assure the people of Abeokuta South that despite this unfortunate incident, elections will hold in Abeokuta South in 2023.
“Whatever material we have lost, the commission is making efforts to replace the materials. We lost 65,699 PVCs, we want to assure all those that have not collected their PVCs, who may have been affected, that we are making plans to reprint the PVCs quickly and to bring them back to Abeokuta South for people to collect and vote.
“We want to assure the people of Abeokuta South that this incident, as terrible as it is, will not deter and will not discourage us, will not discourage our staff from conducting the 2023 general election and we want to once again assure the people of Abeokuta South, the people of Ogun State and the people of Nigeria that the commission is determined to make the 2023 elections our best, we will not be deterred nor cowed by an act of arson by undemocratic and retrogressive elements.
“As soon we get the voter identification numbers to be harvested by the state office, we will reprint, it doesn’t take longer than two days to print 65,000 PVCs, but we have to get the VINs for the cards that were lost so that we can quickly reprint. It doesn’t take longer than two days to reprint those numbers of the PVCs.
“It is very disappointing, particularly because in the last four months, five of our offices were attacked nationwide, but this will never deter us. We will make sure we replace burnt and destroyed equipment and also reprint the PVCs and conduct elections.”