The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ), Attahiru Jega on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 explained that there will be no election in places he termed “high rate security risk” areas of the following North Eastern states: Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
Jega said: “Some areas are high rate security risk, for instance, places occupied by insurgency. Elections cannot hold in such places. In medium rate security risk areas like Maiduguri, elections will hold there with maximum security. Also, you have places that are low rate security risk; elections will sure hold in such areas too.
“INEC has always said it is prepared to conduct elections in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – including the three North East states experiencing the challenge off insurgency. The Commission, however, will work closely with security agencies who have constitutional responsibility for securing the election environment
“I do not entertain any doubt as to the capacity of INEC to conduct elections in these states (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe). But, in these states, there are areas occupied by insurgency and obviously it stands to reason that elections are unlikely in such areas. But that does not mean we are not going to conduct elections in these three states.”
He added that INEC was very ready to conduct elections in everywhere possible as the commission had set up a task force which had made recommendations on how Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the affected states could participate in the election.
