Jega briefs Senators on Election Preparations

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega today briefs distinguished Senators on preparation for the forth coming election slated for March 28th and April 11th.

The INEC boss told the Senators that adequate preparation have been made for the conduct of a free and fair election. Arrangement put in place for the election includes field evaluation to monitor readiness at State level and Headquarter evaluation to conduct assessment of preparation.

Prioritized areas of focus include collection of Permanent voters card whose distribution according to him is 75.94% across the nation, organized test for card readers viz. mock test and stress test, training for ad hoc staff, voters education and election transportation logistics.

On the issue of card readers which elicit emotion from the Senators, Prof. Jega said it is within the powers of INEC to use both PVCs and card readers for the conduct of the election. According to him the card readers are not offensive to the constitution, rather it adds value to the electoral process.

He narrates the advantage of the Card Readers to include detection of cloned PVCs. According to him any cloned PVC will be rejected by the card reader. Should the card reader refused to function on Election Day, the election in that centre will be postponed to the next day.

The Senate also at plenary passed the amendments, fourth alteration to the 1999 Constitution bill 2015. The request for the confirmation of the following persons by Mr. President was forwarded to the relevant Committees for consideration. They are Ambassador Abdullahi Halidu Shinkafi as member of the Federal Character Commission, Ambassador Toye Olofintuyi as member of Federal Civil Service Commission and Honourable Ibrahim Abba as Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory.


Charles Akpan
Asst. Director