INEC Shifts FCT Council Polls To April 9, Says Original Date Of March 19 Not Feasible

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has rescheduled the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections earlier scheduled for March 19 to now hold on April 9.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the FCT, Professor Jacob S. Jatau, announced the rescheduling at an emergency stakeholders meeting today.
Professor Jatau said the Commission is not fully ready for the election on March 19, saying that the change in the date is to enable the Commission conduct free, fair and credible elections.
“It (the Commission) is also determined to deliver qualitative electoral services to Nigerians resident in the FCT.”
The Commissioner said that the Commission has reviewed its preparedness to guarantee the required results and in keeping with its policy on transparency, decided to brief stakeholders on the challenge it has encountered in the recruitment of ad-hoc workers for the election.
“Over a period of time, the Commission has collaborated well and enjoyed cordial relationship with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC): there is a challenge currently as the Commission has not been able to get the required number of corps members for the election scheduled for March 19, 2016.”
He said that given this challenge, the Commission began consultations with the authorities of the University of Abuja to get the balance of the required number of ad-hoc workers which has been received but that “it is not possible to adequately train and deploy them for the exercise.”
“In the light of this development therefore, the Commission has decided to shift the elections by three weeks. The new date for the Area Councils Elections in the FCT is April 9th, 2016. The tenure of the current Chairmen and Councilors will expire on May 17th, 2016.”
Professor Jatau called for the understanding and support of Political Parties and other stakeholders since the new date is still within the time allowed by law even as he appealed to the media for greater collaboration in the area of dissemination of relevant information to the electorate.
The Stakeholders meeting was attended by the FCT Police Commissioner, Wilson Inalegwu; NYSC State Coordinator, Omotayo Adewoye; representative of Directorate of State Security Service Ilupeju Adebayo and Administrative Secretary of the FCT INEC, A.A Adamu. [myad]