Rescheduled polls: I’m not under pressure – INEC chairman



The Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) has stated that it is not under pressure from any quarters in its preparation towards the conduct of the rescheduled 2019 general elections.
Chairman of the Commission Prof Mahmood Yakubu said this on Wednesday in Abuja while fielding questions from newsmen and observers.  


Since the rescheduling of the elections, the commission has faced sharp criticisms from the ruling ruling and opposition parties which accused it of compromise.
A faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP)  which endorsed the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a press briefing Wednesday described INEC’s reasons for the postponement of the polls as “parochial and insensitive.”


It said that the rescheduled polls were capable of worsening voter apathy as experienced in previous elections in the country. 


Its Acting chairman, Chief Supo Shonibare said: “The SDP in assessment of the postponement’s  exponential cost and political actors considers INEC’s decision as parochial, insensitive and capable of creating voter apathy that may further diminish voter turnout on election day.”
However, INEC on Wednesday said the deployment of voting materials to the 774 Local Government Areas of the country will completed today having commenced on Wednesday (yesterday) in ten(10) states. This he said will be completed today.


“Similarly, I briefed you yesterday that having moved the sensitive materials to the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the forward deployment to the 774 LGAs nationwide will commence today Wednesday 20thFebruary 2019 and be concluded tomorrow Thursday 21stFebruary 2019. Already, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina, Osun, Ogun, Oyo and Taraba States have commenced the movement of materials to LGAs today. Other States will do so and conclude tomorrow. 


“We will give a full rendition of movement to LGAs across all States of the Federation tomorrow.


“We have been making good progress on logistics. Similarly, all other arrangements for the movement of personnel from the LGAs to the Wards are on course. We will fully brief you tomorrow at 3pm.”
INEC also said it has completed 100% the configuration of the Smart Cars Readers  (SCRs) which will be used for the accreditation of voters on the 23rd February and 9th March 2019.


“I am pleased to report that we have now achieved 100% completion of the configuration. We are good to go on this score.”

He also acknowledge that there were report of missing materials in some states.The commission he assured has made good progress in the area of logistics and is good to go. 


He also said that only accredited diplomats will be allowed to move about as their is restriction on movement. 
The INEC chairman advised “those who would like to go round on election day to respect the restriction of movement between 6am and 6pm. This applies to citizens and guests of Nigerian government otherwise diplomats. Only those who are accredited can move around on election day to observe the electoral process”.


On the cost implication of the rescheduled polls, Yakubu said “It is impossible to put a finger on a figure at this point. It is when the process is over that we can talk about the cost implications of the postponement.”
On the Conflicting payment made to ad-hoc staff, the chairman said it depended on the category of ad-hoc staff. He said the standard payment of an ad-hoc staff is N17, 500.


According to the INEC boss, a breakdown of the amount is N4,500 for training which covers feeding and transportation. 
He said deployment also involves transport to the polling units and feeding allowances and honorarium which summed to N13,000 in addition to N4,500 training allowance. 
For the state elections, he said because no training would be involved while the ad-hoc staff would get only 13,000 which rounds up to N30,500 for the two elections. 

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