Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday identified electoral violence as the greatest threat to successful conduct of free and fair elections.
He said as long as violence remains unchecked, rancour-free elections will continue to be a mirage.
Jega spoke at the post convocation lecture on challenges and prospects of credible elections in Nigeria at the Bayero University, Kano.
He however disclosed that some measures have been introduced to enhance capacity of the electoral body.
Some of them, according to him, include an inter-agency consultative security committee, which will discuss and formulate operational plans to tackle violence and apprehend electoral offenders.
Jega said: ‘’We are going to deploy security to polling units where voters are more across the country. The serial number of ballot boxes is another measure INEC introduced to curtail rigging. Any time a ballot box is stolen, INEC can detect how it is stolen”
He denied insinuations in some quarters that INEC lacks the capacity to detect multiple registrations.
About 870,000 multiple registrations, he disclosed, were detected using a software developed by young creative Nigerians, whom he noted had saved the nation N5 billion.
He said INEC is working on a robust data base and consolidated software that can stop those with multiple cards from voting more than once.
He vowed to uphold the credibility of the electoral process, saying “We at INEC swore by what we believe in, and in my case the Holy Quran, that we will defend the law and do things to the best of our ability.
‘’Whatever we do, we will not break the law and any body who breaks the law, would have himself to blame. We will not be partisan. Everything will be done on the basis of the legal framework. We will create a level-playing level field for all contestants.”
Originally posted here:
Jega worried over electoral violence