February Elections Will Hold As Scheduled Declares INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it is working towards making sure that the general elections fixed for February 14 and 28 hold as scheduled.

The National Chairman of the commission, speaking in Abuja, however, refused to react to comments credited to the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, asking the commission to delay the elections to allow for adequate distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.

The NSA had on Thursday advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delay the elections scheduled for February in order to allow for proper preparations.
He gave the advice during a discourse at London think-tank, Chatham House, where he stated that it would be advantageous if the upcoming elections were postponed.
The INEC Chairman has, however, assured Nigerians that the commission had not participated in any communication about a postponement.
While maintaining that the commission had no intention of postponing the forthcoming elections, he said that they were prepared to distribute the voters card till February 13 if it becomes necessary as it remained mandatory for electorates to vote with their PVCs.
He maintained that the card would ensure that those who snatch ballot boxes find them useless.
He also absolved INEC of blame in the slow distribution of the PVCs.
He alleged that citizens were not coming out to collect their PVCs, but were blaming INEC for not meeting up with challenges of distributing them.