The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, was on a one- day state inspection to the commission’s facilities in Ogun state.
Speaking with newsmen Tuesday after inspecting attacked office at Iyana Mortuary, Abeokuta, he assured that despite the unfortunate incident, elections will hold successfully in the state.
“Whatever materials 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 bring them back to Abeokuta south for people to collect.
“We want to assure the people of Abeokuta south that this incident, terrible as it is, will not deter and will not discourage us and will not discourage our staff from conducting the 2023 general elections.
“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 ever. We will not be deterred; we are not cowed by act of arsonists, and undemocratic and retrogressive elements.
“As soon as we get the VIN 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 Voter Identification Numbers for the cards that were lost so that we can quickly reprint. It doesn’t take longer than two days to reprints those number of 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 that we replace burnt and destroyed equipment and also reprint the PVCs and conduct elections”, he stated.
