Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has taken full responsibility for the postponement of the elections.

In a new statement released yesterday evening, he cited bad weather and other logistics issues, as well as cases of lawsuits filed against the commission. He, however, restated the commitment of the commission to ensuring free, fair and credible elections.

See the full statement below…

l. About thirteen hours ago, I conveyed to Nigerians the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reschedule the 2019 general elections by one week. Presidential and National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for 16th February 2019 will now hold on Saturday 23rd February 2019, while Governorship, State Assembly and FCT Area Council elections scheduled for 2nd March 20l9 will now hold on Saturday 9th March 2019. The one-week adjustment was a painful one for INEC, but necessary in the overall interest of our democracy.

2. Nigerians will recall that when this Commission was appointed in November 2015, we promised Nigerians two cardinal things. First, we shall work hard to consolidate the improvements made in the management of elections. Secondly, we shall always be open, transparent and responsive. We have strived diligently to keep these promises in very trying circumstances.

3. In keeping with our promise to consolidate the gains of the last two electoral cycles, the Commission has conducted 195 rerun and off-season elections across the country since the last general elections. Most of these elections have been generally adjudged to show progressive improvements in planning, execution and outcomes.

4. This commitment to continue to improve on election administration has informed our preparations for the 20l9 general elections. Our goal is to plan carefully, execute meticulously and bring stability into election management in Nigeria. Consequently, we announced fixed dates for elections in Nigeria to the effect that Presidential and National Assembly elections will always hold on the third Saturday in February of an election year. While the Governorship and State Assembly elections follow two weeks later. Having settled this, we began the planning quite early, with a Strategic Plan (SP), 3 Strategic Programme of Action (SPA) and an Election Project Plan (EPP). In fact, the plan for the 2019 general elections was ready in November 2017 and we subsequently issued the timetable and schedule of activities for the elections over one year ago on 9th January 2018. We carefully followed the timetable and implemented 13 of the 14 activities as scheduled. We kept to the timeframe and have not missed the date fixed for any single activity.

Continue reading the full statement
https://justofofo.com.ng/2019/02/we-regret-any-inconvenience-our-decision-might-have-caused-inec-apologises-to-nigerians/

This mahmod man is too arrogant. Typical nothern oligarch behaviour. Like he's doing us a favour by being inec chairman. #yakububehumble!

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