Ahead of the 2015 general elections, the
chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Committee, Prof Attahiru Jega
alongside the nation’s security chiefs
yesterday held a closed door meeting with
members of the monitoring committee of
the Abuja Peace Accord.
The meeting which went into tea break
after several hours, saw the INEC
chairman, the Chief of Defence Staff, AVM
Alex Badeh and the Inspector General of
Police, Suleiman Abba leave the venue as
their security aides barred journalists from
getting close to them.
Curiously also, after the meeting, the
arrowheads of the committee, including
the chairman, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar;
the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, the
Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal
John Onayeikan; the Anglican Primate,
Nicholas Okoh and the Catholic Bishop of
Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah,
all left the hall for other members to brief
the press.
Justice Rose Ukeje rtd, Vanguard
Newspaper publisher Sam Amuka and the
director of the Institute of Peace and
Conflict Resolution, Prof Osita Osita, later
briefed the press and disclosed that the
INEC chairman and the service chiefs
gave their full assurances that the
rescheduled elections would hold as
planned.
able to extract from the defence chief his
assurance that the military has addressed
most of the security challenges especially
in the northeast.
They also stated that the INEC chairman
confirmed that the collection of
Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) has
attained 80 per cent collect which he said
has met the constitutional requirement.
According to the INEC, most people who
had not collected their cards may fall into
the category of dead, displaced or
relocated persons.
“This is the fourth meeting of the
committee. At today’s meeting the
following eminent persons briefed the
committee: the INEC chairman, the chief
of Defence Staff and the Inspector General
of Police and they said that there is no
fear and there will be a violence free and
credible election and also that there is no
fear of a further adjournment of the
election because there is no room for that
in the constitution,” Justice Ukeje said.
Other members of the committee present
were Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Sen Ben
Obi, and Dr Yunusa Tanko.