The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has summoned the 36 state resident electoral commissioners to Abuja for a meeting on Monday. Our correspondent learnt on Sunday in Abuja that the meeting was convened to among other issues, discuss the distribution of permanent voter cards in states. It was also learnt that Jega and the 36 state resident electoral commissioners would deliberate on the controversy generated by the call for the shift of the February elections to March. A top officer of INEC, who pleaded anonymity because he was not officially permitted to speak on the issue, said that the RECs would also give the chairman the feedback on the distribution of PVCs in their states. The commission, had on January 12, 2015, said that 68.8 million Nigerians were registered for the elections. Out of the number, INEC said 38.7 million people had collected their PVCs as of January 7, 2015. The North-West and the South-West top the list of those who have got their voter cards with 12,013,961 and 6,270,736 respectively. In the North-Central, 5,520,001 have collected their PVCs, while 4,886,499 have got their voter cards in the North-East . The commission had said that 5,756,018 people had got their PVCs in the South-South, while in the South-East, 3,915,241 had received the cards The INEC officer, who spoke with our correspondent, said that since January 7, 2015 when the figures were released, more people had collected their PVCs. He added, “There is no way such a meeting will hold without deliberating on the controversy generated by the call for the postponement of the elections.” The National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), had on Thursday, advised INEC to shift the elections to March. The call has generated controversies with the opposition All Progressives Congress, the Northern Elders’ Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum faulting the NSA. But Jega had ruled out the call for the shift of the polls, saying the elections would go ahead as planned. He had said that the commission had, at no time, contemplated the postponement of the elections. Jega had stated, “I don’t want to comment on this. Like everybody, we read it (the NSA’s call) in the papers. In any case, whatever I communicate is the INEC’s position and the commission has not discussed this matter and taken a position on it.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:53:30 +0000
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