2015: no election in states under emergency rule -Jega •Says INEC needs 93bn for election

CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has insisted that the electoral body will not conduct any election in areas affected by the state of emergency.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Senate Committee on INEC, in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Abuja and the United Kingdom Department for International Development, (DFID), held at the National Assembly, Professor Jega said the security situation in the areas could not guarantee the conduct of a credible election.

He added that he had advised against the conduct of local government election in Yobe State, scheduled to hold on December 28.

The INEC boss said security situation in the area had forced the commission not to conduct a bye election to fill the vacant Nangere constituency position in the state House of Assembly.

The seat was vacated after the death of the deputy leader of the Yobe State House of Assembly, Alhaji Adamu Degubi, who was killed by unidentified gunmen in 2012.

The election, initially scheduled to hold in June, was postponed due to security challenges.

It will be recalled that the chairman of the Yobe State Independent Electoral Commission, Alhaji Muhammad Jauro, had told journalists in September that the emergency rule imposed on the state would not affect the forthcoming local government poll.

“It is my hope that the challenges in the North-East will be resolved before 2015. If the security is such that we cannot do election, then we may need to fall back on the law to suspend or postpone it,” he said.

Jega also said the commission would need about N93 billion to conduct a hitch-free general election in 2015.
He assured that the the conduct of the elections would consequently enable the country to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.

The electoral body boss also said the commission was tinkering with the possibility of holding the 2015 elections between January and February.

According to him, Nigeria spent about $8 per voter in the 2011 election, noting that Ghana, in its last election, spent between between $10 and $12 per voter, while Kenya spent between $8 and $9.