The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has postponed the general elections originally scheduled for February 14 and February 28 for six weeks.

The shift in the date of the elections was announced by chairman of the electoral body Saturday night after marathon meetings and consultations with political parties, state electoral commissioners of the commission and other stakeholders.

The presidential and National Assembly elections formerly scheduled for February 14 will now hold on March 28 while the state elections will now hold on April 11.

Jega said that INEC reached the decision to postpone the election after due consultations with political parties and their representatives, security agencies, the media, civil society organisations and other state holders.

The INEC chairman stated that the security agencies and the military had repeatedly indicated that they could not guarantee sufficient security during the election. He recalled that the National Security Adviser, NSA, had on February 5 written to INEC indicating that security could not be guaranteed in four states – Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe – in February when the elections were earlier scheduled to hold.

He added that the NSA and all military chiefs of staff reiterated the inability of the security agencies to guarantee security if the elections went ahead as planned at the council of State meeting held on Thursday.

According to the INEC chairman, the service chiefs stated that the military was launching a major operation against the insurgents in the North east and that soldiers would not be available to complement other security agencies to provide security during the election.

Jega reiterated that INEC had before now impressed on all stakeholders that it was prepared and ready to go ahead with the elections as scheduled in spite of challenges it faced. He said although the commission’s preparations were not perfect, it had done everything to prepare to conduct the election

He said that as at February 5 when he made a presentation to the Council of States, INEC had distributed a total of 45,829,808 Permanent Voter Card, which is 66.58 per cent of the total.

The INEC chairman said, however, that the commission had to consider the security advisory from the NSA and military chiefs as it would have been foolhardy for it to go ahead and deploy its staff and call Nigerians out to vote, in spite of the warning that security cannot be guaranteed.

Fielding questions from journalists after announcing the shift in date, Jega said that if the security situation is not fixed within the six weeks of postponement, the electoral body would go ahead and conduct the election as it would abide by the constitutional requirement that elections be held 30 days before the handing over date of May 29.

Asked what the cost of the postponement would be, the INEC chairman said he did not envisage any costs as all materials needed for the election and already been delivered to states.

There had been a lot of tension as the nation waited for the decision of INEC on the fate of the general elections. Before Saturday night’s announcement of postponement, the Associated France Press, AFP, had indicated that INEC had postponed the election by six weeks. But the report came out even when officials of the commission were still tied down in a meeting at its national headquarters in Abuja.

Press secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, had dismissed the report as untrue, saying that the commission was still meeting with stakeholders.

Nigerians had been divided over whether the election should go on as scheduled or be postponed. While the opposition All Progressive e Congress, APC, had led voices calling for the election to proceed as planned, other political parties had insisted on its postponement.

In fact, on Tuesday, 16 political parties announced threatened in Abuja that they would boycott the polls if they are not postponed.

Stating the APC’s position, the party’s spokesman, Lai Mohammed, said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had orchestrated the move to postpone the election because it realised how unpopular it had become.

Speaking on a television programme on Saturday, Mohammed maintained APC’s opposition to a postponement, noting that the INEC chairman had stated that the electoral body was ready to conduct the election. He, therefore, wondered why the insurgency in a few local governments in Nigeria should form the basis for postponing an election that took years to plan.

But the special adviser to the President on public affairs, Doyin Okupe, also speaking on the same programme, said the presidency and the PDP were ready for the election but expressed concern about the disenfranchisement of many Nigerians who legitimately registered to vote but had not been able to collect their PVCs.

Okupe also wondered how elections could be conducted in many parts of the country still experiencing insecurity but said that the presidency and the PDP were ready for the election if INEC concluded that it would go ahead t=with it as scheduled in spite of all the challenges confronting it.

The major argument raised for the postponement, which was first put forward by the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is that many Nigerians who had not been able to collect their Permanent Voter Card, PVC, would be disenfranchised and that the security situation in the North east will make conducting elections there impossible.

The Council of State on Thursday met in Abuja and gave a nod to the election holding as scheduled although members advised INEC to consider postponing the polls in the states still ridden by insurgency.