After the tongue lashing by virtually all segments of the public for last Saturday’s last minute postponement of the presidential and National Assembly election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday began the public confidence rebuilding process, telling Nigerians that it is now ready to hold the poll rescheduled for Saturday nationwide.
Its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood
Yakubu, in his first progress report told the media in Abuja that the
hitches that caused the poll shift have been cleared and that the fresh
time-lines for the conduct of the election are now being met.
Specifically,
he said the commission has achieved 98 per cent reconfiguration of its
smart card readers, saying it is a significant milestone towards the
conduct of the election and assured that the remaining two per cent
would be completed today.
Responding to media reports that a
couple of its senior officials are being quizzed by the Department of
State Security (DSS), raising fears that the commission’s work might be
hampered, Yakubu denied the reports and said no director or national
commissioner of the commission has been arrested by the DSS.
However,
Akelicious’s checks revealed that six senior staff members of the
commission, including Professor Okechukwu Ibeano, Mr. Festus Okoye, Mr.
Osaze Uzi and others, were invited by DSS for a chat.
But Yakubu
stated: “No commissioner of the commission was picked up by any security
agency; no house of any commissioner of INEC was raided; no any
commissioner of INEC has been picked up by security agencies. The
particular commissioner you are referring to that was mentioned in the
social media is as we speak, in his office in the commission. Similarly,
no six directors were picked up by any security agencies.”
The
chairman revealed that by 4p.m. on Monday, all issues relating to the
delivery of the materials were identified and virtually addressed.
According
to him, “Last Saturday, the commission, after extensive review of our
preparedness for the 2019 general election, decided that it was
necessary to reschedule the elections by one week.
‘’As I
explained to stakeholders, we were constrained to shift the polls due to
severe challenges and lapses we experienced with arrival and
distribution of sensitive materials, as well as the fires that gutted
some of our offices in quick succession, destroying several election
materials.”
He said INEC had identified six areas covering three
broad areas like deployment of materials, movement of personnel and
reconfiguration of smart card readers.
Yakubu said: “Let me,
therefore, present to you the level of implementation so far achieved as
follows; by 4p.m. yesterday, all issues relating to the delivery of the
materials were identified and virtually addressed. Ballot papers,
result sheets and a host of non-sensitive materials are now in location
across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT).
“Our state offices commenced the process of inviting
stakeholders to the Central Bank of Nigeria to examine the retrieved
materials deployed last week and to witness the batching of materials
according to local government areas. This is on-going at the moment and
is expected to be completed today, Tuesday 19, February 2019.
“The
movement of materials to LGAs for batching according to wards and
polling units shall take place on Wednesday, 20 and Thursday, 21
February 2019.
“All Registration Area Centres (RACs) are to be
activated by 9a.m. on Friday, February 22, 2019. Personnel and materials
should be at the RACs by mid-day on Friday, February 22, 2019.
“Refresher
training for ad hoc personnel should take place at the RACs on Friday,
February 22, 2019. Personnel and materials must arrive at the Polling
Units latest 7a.m. on Saturday 23, February 2019. Opening of polls
nationwide will take place at 8a.m. on Saturday, February 23, 2019.”
Explaining
further on the rationale for a week long postponement of the polls, the
INEC Chairman said; “You would recall that in my address to
stakeholders, I mentioned that we intended to reschedule the elections
for just 24 hours to enable us to deliver the final batch of sensitive
materials for the elections.
‘’However, our ICT team notified us
that it would require more time to reconfigure the Smart Card Readers in
time for the elections. Let me explain why. The Smart Card Readers
(SCRs) are configured to only open for use at 8a.m. on Election Day, and
to automatically shut down by 10p.m.
‘’This is designed to
forestall any illegal use of the SCRs before the appointed time of
elections. There are roughly 180,000 SCRs to be deployed for the
elections and the ICT team said that they would require 5-6 days to
complete the configuration.
‘’I am glad to say that as at today,
about 98 per cent of the SCRs have been reconfigured and we are
confident that by tomorrow all would be ready, which is a day earlier
than scheduled. ”
The INEC chairman also stated that campaigns
for the presidential and National Assembly elections shall now end at
midnight on Thursday, February 21, 2019, while campaigns for the
governorship, state assembly and FCT Area Council elections shall end at
midnight Thursday, March 7, 2019.
He explained that preparations
for governorship, state assembly and FCT Area Council elections are
well underway, saying already, the sensitive materials for the elections
have started arriving at various locations for onward movement to
various CBN branches across the country.
Yakubu further stated:
“Indeed, some of these materials arriving through our airports have been
erroneously construed by some people as materials for the elections
holding this weekend. I want to reassure you all that all materials for
the rescheduled presidential and National Assembly elections next
Saturday are already in the states ready for deployment to LGAs, Ward
and Polling Units.
‘’We have learnt a lesson from the
preparations for the elections holding this weekend. For this reason, we
shall start the movement of materials for the next elections early to
ensure that nothing disrupts our process.
“While we fully
understand the disappointment and even anger that followed that
rescheduling of the elections on February 16, I wish to appeal to
stakeholders to be more dispassionate and circumspect in their comments
in order not to overheat the polity.
‘’The commission is focusing
on the elections to be held on February 23 and 9th March 2019 to ensure
that they are free, fair and credible. We urge all Nigerians to
participate fully in the elections, notwithstanding the disappointment
caused by the rescheduling of dates.”
He said the commission would continue to speak to Nigerians daily to let them know the extent of readiness of the commission.
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