Chairman, Independent National Election (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has described electoral officers as the weakest link in the Commission’s preparations for elections.
Yakubu, represented by Amina Zakari, a Commissioner in the electoral Commission, made this known, in Abuja, at a strategy meeting organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, over its preparation for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states billed for September 10 and November 26, respectively.
“The INEC Citizens Centre is functional, it has been upgraded and we have enhanced citizens’ engagement online. The voter verification portal is online; the phone lines will soon be issued to the states,” he said.
“The PVC distribution has been ongoing in Ondo for the outstanding PVCs. And we believe that those outstanding PVCs something must have happened either the owners have moved or they have died or they don’t belong to any particular person.
“But we are still not relenting. We have allowed people to collect their PVCs even before we flag off PVC collection after the Continuous Voters Registration.”
He further disclosed that about 200 individuals were currently undergoing trials in courts across the country, and vowed that the Commission would leave no stone unturned in conducting hitch-free exercises in the two states.
Yakubu added that the electoral offenders included staff of the Commission.
