ANAMBRA POLITICS: ELECTION WILL HOLD- INEC
Oru Leonard
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that the Anambra state governorship election in Nigeria will hold on November 6, 2021, irrespective of the ongoing security challenges.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu stated this on Tuesday when he convened an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
He also said that the security situation in the state has deteroriated since the last meeting with ICCES, noting that many innocent lives have been lost and property destroyed, expressing worry that the security agencies have also become prime targets of these mindless attacks.
Prof. Mahmood disclosed that the Commission has received report that the goal of many of the attackers is that the Governorship election scheduled for 6th November 2021 must not hold.
He assured however, that the Commission is determined to proceed with the election as scheduled as the Commission is particularly concerned about the safety of voters and Election Day staff, including security officials who have also become the targets of these attacks.
Also expressing worry over the safety of human and material resources to be deployed for the election, Mahmood said, “The thousands of young Nigerians that we intend to deploy for the election, most of them National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and university students, need to be reassured of their personal safety.
“At the same time, deployment for the election will involve the movement of huge consignments of sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the 21 Local Government Areas of the State, 326 Wards or Registration Areas and 5,720 Polling Units. That means over 6,000 locations to be protected.
“If we add that to about 26,000 officials that will be deployed for the election, we begin to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge of securing the Anambra Governorship election which is only thirty-two (32) days from today”
“We are confident that at the end of this meeting, we will firm up on specific measures necessary to further guarantee the safety of all persons involved in the election from the voters, election officials, observers, media organisations and the security of election materials”, he said.
The INEC Boss who also expressed optimism in holding a credible election in Anambra state, disclosed that the Commission is implementing two more activities on the Timetable for the election in the next few days—The register of voters will be presented to political parties in Awka on Thursday 7th October 2021— On the same day, the Commission will publish the final list of candidates for the election.
“We will continue to work with the security agencies and in consultation with respected opinion leaders in Anambra State and the National Peace Committee to ensure that these hit-and-run attacks do not derail the electoral process”, he concluded.
