The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye has explained why the cost of conducting the Anambra governorship election is higher than that of recently conducted Edo and Ondo elections.

Okoye speaking on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily said the amount expended on the rehabilitation of its burnt office and materials is the reason for the high cost of the Anambra election.

Commenting further on the election, Okoye said the cost is high because of the “unusual circumstances.”

“It’s been very very costly and we can’t compare it to Ondo and Edo states elections, because we are in very unusual circumstances, we had to do things differently.

“So in terms of cost, it is most costly than other elections,” he said.

He explained that “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.”

“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 60 percent of the non-sensitive materials we already deployed to our Akwa office, getting ready for this election.

“We had to replace six utility vehicles that were burnt and we almost had to rebuild our state office that was also burnt,” he added.

Although the INEC Commissioner was unable to disclose the amount expended so far on the Anambra election, he expressed hope that the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun election will not pose more costs and challenges

Anambra election is scheduled to take place on November 6, 2021. (Channels TV)

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