Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, says the flood disaster that hit some state recently affected over 4000 Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines at the commission’s office.
Yakubu disclosed this at the opening of a two-day induction retreat for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Monday in Lagos.
The INEC chairman, however, said the commission had been able to recover no fewer than 3,500 of the machines.
The INEC Chairman said the machines in the state would not be enough for the election and that the commission would call for additional support from neighbouring states.
On the retreat, the INEC chairman said it was not just about induction of new appointees but an opportunity to review performance, reappraise processes, discuss innovations, and engage service providers.
He noted that it was also an opportunity to interface with lawmakers on critical areas of reform and explore new frontiers “in our continuous effort to improve organisational capacity for better service delivery.”
He continued: “In March 2022, we had an induction retreat for new National Commissioners, followed by another one on election logistics in October, and then another retreat for new RECs in November.