The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that despite the security challenges in the north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and the declaration of emergency in the affected states, elections will still be conducted in the troubled states in 2015.
Professor Jega, who stated this yesterday during a meeting with the Senator Andy Ubah-led Senate Committee on INEC, however, noted that there was the expectation that the security situations in the affected states would improve before the general elections.
He argued that if countries like Afghanistan and Iraq that have always faced crises could hold elections in the midst of such turmoil, elections should also hold in the North-East states that were having security challenges.
The INEC chairman explained that while the security situation in the area could not be underestimated, elections could still hold in the three affected states, adding that already the security situations in the affected states were being tackled frontally by the Federal Government to restore normalcy.
The INEC Chairman also justified the recent controversial creation of about 30,000 polling units, which had been criticised as being lopsided with the North having about 20,000 additional polling units while the South has about 8,000, adding that considerations were given to the displaced people from the troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, who were now living in refugee camps.
According to him, “We are having displacement of people; people are abandoning where they live and now live in camps, it is a serious challenge, nobody can underestimate it, but the hope of everybody in this country is that, this is a temporary problem and you cannot begin to plan long term based on a temporary thing.
“If we now say okay because people are leaving the north east therefore the polling unit you create in the north east should take care of people who have moved out, are we saying that this people are not likely to come back before 2015 or whenever we conduct the elections?”
He told the senators that elections were held in several volatile nations “…including countries which are having problems like ours in terms of security, take Afgahnistan, take Iraq and so on.
“We hope and pray that states where emergency is; will stabilize sufficiently for us to be able to conduct elections that are relatively peaceful in those areas and we must plan for that eventuality.”
He said the commission was making preparations to hold elections in all parts of Nigeria even where there was the case of displaced people as long as there were registered voters, stressing that there were likely to be displaced people but that there temporary displacement should not be an excuse to disenfranchise them.
He also said that preparations were on top gear to conduct governorship bye-election in Adamawa States and that the exercise would take place in all parts of the state.
He said from the briefing he received from the state resident electoral commissioner, life was gradually returning to normal in most parts of the state.
Jega said, “Yesterday the Adamawa State Electoral Commissioner was here and he gave us adequate briefing. From what we have heard, people are moving back home. (In) Madagali for example, as of yesterday (Wednesday) buses were being provided to move people back home from the camps. – Vanguard.
