Saturday poll: Tension grips INEC officials over readiness of security

Less than a week to Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly polls, indications have emerged that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been gripped with tension over the readiness of various security agencies to be deployed for the election.

A National Commissioner, who declined to be mentioned, expressed worries over the spate of violent protests following the redesign of the nation’s currency recently introduced by the Federal Government.

He told Daily Sun categorically that the commission has not got a commensurate response for peaceful conduct of the poll from security agencies, saying though the INEC is ready for this weekend’s presidential and National Assembly election, it will however wait for the response and assurances from the security agencies.

“I can confirm to you that the commission is ready to conduct the presidential and National Assembly election as scheduled. Sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to all the states. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines have been configured and deployed to the appropriate places.

“We are ready to go; however, what I cannot confirm is whether we will get commensurate commitment from the security agencies especially as it concerns the security situation in the country. You can see the recent protests in some states, they need to deal with this situation,” he said.

He equally spoke on the promise by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to help the commission with cash to offset some responsibilities, emphasising that without it, the commission will face some difficulties.

“We will meet with the chairman to brief us about the situation with the arrangements with the CBN over our cash requests. If we did not get favourable responses over these issues of insecurity and cash support, we will inform Nigerians during a world press conference,” he said.

However, speaking on both the security and the cash requests from the CBN, INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu said, “On what is happening around the country, the protest that you mentioned, it is a security matter. This is an issue that we are going to discuss with the security agencies.

“As you know we have our own role clearly cut out and others also have their own roles clearly cut out, but the most important thing is that we are working together. The security agencies have assured and reassured that they will secure the environment for elections to hold peacefully nationwide. So, we have no issues in that respect,” he assured.

Commenting on speculations that the CBN may not meet up with INEC’s demand for cash to execute some of the election day logistics, he said: “We visited the CBN last week on the issue of cash for payment of some of the services not all, some of the services that we are going to engage on election day. The bulk of payment for goods, works and services are made by the commission through electronic transfer.

“However, there are certain critical services that we have to remunerate by cash. And that is why we want to call on the CBN for help but it is a small percentage of the budget and the CBN has assured us that; as I keep saying, we will not suffer any encumbrances in that regard, so there are no issues with respect to that,” he assured.

The commission confidence that the poll will hold on Saturday is hinged on a report from the security agencies despite the increasing spate of protests across the country over the Federal Government’s economic policy on Naira.

Although INEC Chairman disclosed that the issue will be appraised during an emergency meeting with the security agencies this week, the Commissioner told Daily Sun that the commission will inform Nigerians on the true situation of things on Tuesday during a world press conference.

(SUN)