Written by ; ‘JIDE ADESINA
Nigeria’s electoral commission will postpone the Feb. 14 presidential and legislative elections to March 28, 2015 in order to give the new multinational force time to secure northeastern areas under the sway of Boko Haram and the displaced people in the North East to get their PVC.
Prof Jega emphasized on the security of the country and says they are postponing the election as a result of security advice
There are several other pertinent security challenges that exist in the context of the upcoming general elections. For example, INEC cannot guarantee security, free, fair and transparent conduct elections in the volatile North-East states in the face of the lingering Boko Haram insurgency. INEC called on the security apparatus to deal with the insurgency and work within the framework stipulated, six week extension to end the possible threats in the three core north-eastern states (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe) .
INEC cannot guarantee transfer of PVC for internal displaced people in their new areas – Prof . Jega …. “I said it was regrettable but theres nothing the agency could do under this circumstances”
He reaffirms his decision to not resign and stresses that the rumors circulating about his consultation with Arewa consultative forums a figment of imagination. ” If theres is a legitimate ground for me to resign I will, but for now there’s none. ” – Jega.
INEC boss reaffirms that their decision is not coerced nor forced upon but necessary decisions to salvage the polity of the nation and security . He went further to give statistics of registered voter in North east area
INEC gave the new time table for the Election
. Presidential election – March 28, 2015
. State election – April 11, 2015
APC Kicks Against Election Postponement
Just before the council of states met, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari, kicked against any attempt by the Federal Government to postpone the February 14 and 28 elections, warning members of the National Council of State, against being dragged into a postponement which could damage the nation’s electoral process.
The party accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of acting out a script to deny Nigerians the right to vote for their preferred leader.
The APC’s position was made known at a press conference in Abuja by its National Chairman, Mr John Oyegun, who added that the consequences of polls shift might be unpredictable.
Doyin Okupe List Why Presidency Wants Elections Postponed
On Friday, the presidency listed some of the reasons it felt that going ahead with the February dates for the general elections, as scheduled by the INEC could “throw the country into turmoil and confusion”.
According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, “if the elections go on as planned, they may throw the country into chaos”.
While speaking at a press conference on the Council of State meeting held on Thursday, Dr. Okupe said the President would not engage in any form of subterfuge to pressurise INEC to change the dates of the elections.
He said that during the meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, never insisted on the February dates as reported by some media organisations.
On the level of preparedness of INEC, Dr. Okupe stated during the meeting, that the only process that was 100 per cent concluded was the preparation and availability of the voters registration.
This is the total number of eligible voters in
each Six Geopolitical Zone in Nigeria by INEC
[1] SOUTH EAST:
¤Abia 1,481,191
¤Anambra 1,758,220
¤Enugu 1,301,185
¤Imo 1,611,715
¤Ebonyi 876,249
TOTAL = 7,028,560
[2] SOUTH WEST:
¤Lagos 6,247,845
¤Ogun 1,869,326
¤Osun 1,293,967
¤Ondo 1,558,975
¤Ekiti 750,753
¤Oyo 2,577,490
TOTAL=14,298,35 6
[3] SOUTH SOUTH:
¤Edo 1,412;225
¤Delta 1,900,055
¤Bayelsa 472,389
¤Akwa Ibom 1,714,781
¤RIvers 2,419,057
¤C/Rivers 1,018,550
TOTAL 8,937,057
[4] NORTH CENTRAL:
¤Benue 1,415,162
¤Kogi 1,215,405
¤Kwara 1,115,665
¤Nassarawa 1,224,206
¤Niger 721,478
¤Plateau 1,983,453
TOTAL 7,675,369
[5] NORTH EAST:
¤Adamawa 1,714,860
¤Bauchi 1,835,562
¤Borno 2,730,368
¤Gombe 1,266,993
¤Taraba 1,308,106
¤Yobe 1,182,230
TOTAL 10,038,119
[6] NORTH WEST:
¤Jigawa 1,852,698
¤Kano 5,135,415
¤Katsina 2,931,668
¤Kaduna 3,565,762
¤Kebbi 1,603,468
¤Sokoto 2,065,508
¤Zamfara 1,746,024
TOTAL 18,900,543
One of the ways to make the elections credible, the commission says, is the issuance of the Permanent Voter Cards to eligible voters. So far, the commission says it has distributed 38,774,391 PVCs to Nigerians. The Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of the commission, Mr. Kayode Idowu, says the figure represents 71.35 per cent of the 54,341,610 number of PVCs received by the commission across the country.
It also showed that 15,567,219 PVCs had yet to be collected by their owners. The released figure however did not include that of Borno State, where no PVC had been distributed when this disclosure was made by the commission.
The breakdown of the states that had collected PVCs showed that Kano recorded the highest number of voters who had collected their PVCs with 2,771,185; followed by Kaduna State with 2,643,517.
Lagos State came third with 2,159,091. However, while 86.63 per cent of those who registered had collected in Kano State and Kaduna State recorded 82.10 per cent distribution of the PVCs, only 53.98 percentage of the four million PVCs in Lagos State had been distributed. President Goodluck Jonathan’s state of Bayelsa recorded the lowest with the PVCs in the state at a mere 370,062.
Statistics indicated that the North-West and the South-West were leading the other four zones in the collection of the PVCs. In the North-West, which has seven states, a total number of 12,013,961 PVCs had been collected.
The seven states in the zone are Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano, Katisna and Kaduna. There are also 6,270,736 PVCs in the six states of the South-West. States from the zone are Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun and Oyo.
The South-South is third among the zones with the highest number of PVCs as it can boast of 5,756,018. States from the zone, where the President hails from are Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta. Trailing the zone is the North-Central with 5,520,001 PVCs. States from the zone are Benue, Kwara, Nasarawa, Kogi, Plateau and Niger. Though voters from Borno State have yet to collect their PVCs, the remaining states from the North-East still have 4,886,499 PVCs. Apart from Borno, other states from the zone are Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe. The South-East brought up the rear with a mere 3,915,241 PVCs. The states from the zone are Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Imo and Enugu.
What is disturbing to politicians is that 68,833,476 voters registered for the February general elections and that just a mere 38,774,391 have collected their PVCs. If the commission had not erased the names of over four million Nigerians who it said were involved in multiple registrations across the country, the list of the registered voters would have been longer.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, gave the two figures at a meeting the officials of the commission had with the national leadership of all the 23 registered political parties in Abuja on Tuesday evening.
Jega said, “In line with the provisions of the law, the commission has announced the publications of the register of voters that will be used for the March and April 2015 general elections. The total number of voters registered for the elections is 68,833,476.”
FRENCH VERSION
Prof Jega met l’accent sur la sécurité du pays et estime qu’ils sontreportant l’élection basée sur la sécurité conseillée dans certainsÉtats
Il y a plusieurs autres défis de sécurité pertinents qui existentdans le contexte des prochaines élections générales. Parexemple, INEC ne peut garantir sécurité, libre, équitable ettransparent conduite des élections dans le volatile au nord-estaffirme face à l’insurrection persistante de Boko Haram. INECappelé sur l’appareil de sécurité pour faire face à l’insurrection ettravail dans le cadre prévu, extension de six semaines à la fin lesmenaces éventuelles dans les États du nord-est de troisprincipaux (Adamaoua, Borno et Yobe).
INEC ne peut garantir le transfert de PVC pour les personnesdéplacées internes dans leurs nouveaux domaines – Prof. Jega… « J’ai dit qu’il est regrettable mais il ya que rien, l’Agence pourraitfaire en cette circonstance »
Il a réaffirmé sa décision de ne pas démissionné et ces rumeursde consultation avec Arewa forums consultatifs est un fruit del’imagination. « Si theres constitue un motif légitime pour moi dedémissionner je le ferai mais pour l’instant, il n’y a aucun » – Jega.
Patron de la CENI réaffirme que leur décision ne repose pas surdes décisions sous la contrainte, ni forcées sur mais nécessairespour sauver la système politique de la nation et de la sécurité. Ilest allé à la suite de donner des statistiques d’un électeur inscritdans la zone nord-est
INEC a donné le nouveau calendrier pour l’élection
