The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday assured Nigerians that it was going to conduct elections in 2015 in all states, including Borno,Yobe and Adamawa which are all currently emergency rule due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
INEC Chariman, Prof. Attahiru Jega gave the assurance while speaking at a media session organised by INEC and the United Nations Democratic Programme’s (UNDP) Democratic Governance for Democracy Project in Abuja on Monday. He also assured Nigerians that the commission would do its best to conduct elections in every part of the country in 2015.
He said “Insecurity is a serious challenge to the commission and the entire electoral process. But we are ready to conduct election in any situation. Security challenges are enormous, be it Boko Haram, kidnapping or even armed robbery.
“Elections can be conducted under situations of emergency rule. But all we are saying is that elections will be free and fair where there are minimal security challenges. Under a situation of emergency, many things are likely to happen, either people will be scared of coming out or they will come out and run into security cordons and be molested by security agents.
“Our hope is that by 2015 we will be able to conduct elections in all parts of the country. We are ready to conduct the elections everywhere in this country in 2015. We hope that security challenges will be minimal for us to conduct elections in 2015 and when we get to the bridge, we will cross it.”
He also said the commission had began screening its electoral officers with a view to checking electoral malpractices in 2015.
He said, “As I speak with you, we are finalising screening of our electoral officers to ascertain who and who should be retained for the 2015 general elections. In INEC, we have a few bad eggs. “Statistically, they are insignificant. Almost the same number of people who conducted the 2007 election which was said to be the worst were the same people who conducted the 2011 election which is believed to be the best.
“Many of them were coerced. When we came in 2010, we told them that we won’t break the law and quietly we have retired, removed and dismissed people. We did structural reorganisation of INEC. We have restructured INEC, reduced the number of directorates, and put round pegs in round holes. We have confidence that the 2015 general elections will be better than 2011 despite the challenges.”
He also said the commission had prosecuted over 200 electoral offenders between 2011 and now and that over one million others are to face prosecution for double registration alone.