2015: Jega says elections in N’East depend on security

The Independent National Electoral Commission on
Wednesday in Abuja stated that the conduct of the 2015
general elections in the North-East would depend on
advice from security agencies.
According to the commission, only assurances from security
agencies on the safety of its personnel, materials as well as
free atmosphere will determine whether election will hold
in the crisis-prone states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
in 2015.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, stated
this in an interview with journalists during the opening
ceremony of a two-day strategic stakeholder’s policy
dialogue on promoting peaceful elections in 2015 in Abuja
on Wednesday.
The United Nations also used the occasion to warn
politicians against the ‘do or die’ politics and likely factors
that could propel crisis in the coming elections.
Jega, however, expressed the hope that before February
2015, the various security challenges facing the country
would have been addressed to give way for the conduct of
free and safe polls.
The event was organised by the United Nations
Development Programme, Democratic Governance for
Development Programme and supported by the Institute
of Peace Conflict and Resolution and the Transition
Monitoring Group.
Jega said the commission was putting arrangement in place
towards ensuring that the Internally Displaced Persons
were registered and participated fully in the forthcoming
polls.
He said, “As an election management body, INEC is
prepared to conduct elections everywhere in this country.
As for the security challenges, INEC is not a security
agency; we rely on the advice, cooperation and support of
security agencies to be able to secure our materials, to
secure our personnel and to enable us to have a free
atmosphere within which to conduct elections.
“We are hopeful that before February 2015, a lot of
security challenges will be addressed so that there would be
sufficient normalcy to conduct elections at that time. So, at
this point, I can tell you that we are doing our best to
ensure that elections are conducted everywhere in this
country in February of 2015.”
The INEC chairman, however, expressed concern over
the Boko Haram incessant terror attacks in the North-
East.
He said, “We have to remain hopeful; we all know that
our security agencies are doing their best. You can’t give
up hope, you can’t just assume that things will still be getting
from bad to worse; you have to assume and hope that
things will get better and our hope is that things will get
better before February, 2015.”