Jega Meets NSA Team, Others Today On State Of Security

INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega will today hold a stock-taking meeting with a team from the Office of the National Security Adviser, the military and para-military organizations on security, for the general elections.

Today’s session with the military is the first since the polls were postponed on February 7. The elections are now scheduled to hold March 28 (Presidential) and April 11 (Gubernatorial, Others).

A top source in INEC, who spoke in confidence with The Nation correspondent, said: “We are holding an Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) session to update ourselves on the state of the nation’s security and the electoral commission’s preparedness.

The Nation reports:

“This is the first meeting we are having since the polls shift due to security reasons. All the parties will lay the cards on the table and consider what still ought to be done. ICCES is chaired by the National Security Adviser. The INEC chairman is co-chair. Others are representatives of the Defence Headqurters (DHQ), Army, Air Force, Navy, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Directorate of State Security (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Commission (NSCDC), Customs Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service and Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).”

Another source said: “We want to know the status of the security in the Northeast. We do not want to wait till the last minute. All the National Commissioners of INEC are also expected to be in attendance.

“This explains why this session is called in the early part of the second week of the six-week window for the postponement of the elections.

“Nigerians and the international community are eager to know how far we have addressed the security challenges in the affected areas.

“Expectedly, we will also brief the session on the number of Permanent Voters Cards collected, the training of 600,000 adhoc staff on the use of Card Readers and the feedback from the monitoring of preparations for the poll in all the six geo-political zones.”

There were indications last night that INEC might restrict the military and Mobile Police to fringe posts during the general elections.

A National Commissioner said: “Military men have no role in the conduct of the elections; they are only expected to stay at designated checkpoints to make sure people do not traffic arms, ammunition or anything that could tamper with the electoral process.

“They also stay at these checkpoints in readiness for rapid deployment, if there is any security challenge during the elections. No soldiers will be at the Polling Units, Collation Centres or have any direct contact with the conduct of the elections. Even the Mobile Police will only engage in fringe patrols without coming to the Polling Units. This is our position.”

The INEC chairman announced the poll shift based on advisory from security and intelligence services.