The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says
the amount expended on the rehabilitation of its burnt office and materials is
the reason for the high cost of the Anambra gubernatorial election.
On May 23, gunmen burnt the commission’s office in Awka,
Anambra state, and also destroyed some sensitive and non-sensitive materials.
Commenting on the election scheduled to take place on
November 6, Festus Okoye, INEC’s commissioner for information and voter
education, said the cost is high because of the “unusual circumstances”.
Okoye spoke on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Thursday.
He said the electoral commission had to replace 326
generating sets, rebuild the facility where electoral materials are stored, and
also replaced non-sensitive materials.
Although he was unable to disclose the amount expended on
the Anambra election, he said it is costlier than the Edo and Ondo gubernatorial
elections.
“We are conducting this election in a very unusual
circumstance, this is because we had to rebuild our offices in Nnewi North and
Idemili north, where our local government offices were burnt,” he said.
“We had to replace over 326 generating sets that we mopped
up from our local government offices and stored in the headquarters thinking
that it would be more secure.
“We also had to rebuild our stores, where we normally store
non-sensitive materials. We had to also replace over 60percent of the non
sensitive materials we already deployed to our Akwa office, getting ready for
this election.
“We had to repay six utility vehicles that were all burnt,
we almost had to rebuild our state office that was also burnt.
“So, in terms of cost, it’s been very very costly and we
can’t compare it to Ondo and Edo states elections, because we are in unusual
circumstances, we had to do things differently.
“We are hopeful that when we get to Ekiti and Osun
governorship elections, things will calm down much better and things will
return to its normal trajectory.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com