The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the FCT, Prof. Jacob S. Jatau, announced the rescheduling at an emergency stakeholders meeting today.
Prof. Jatau, while explaining the reason for the rescheduling of the elections, said: “the Commission is committed to ensuring the conduct of free, fair and credible elections. It is also determined to deliver qualitative electoral services to Nigerians resident in the FCT.”
The REC 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.
According to the REC, “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.
The REC said, 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, “it is not possible to adequately train and deploy them for the exercise.”
Prof. Jatau said: “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”.
He called for the understanding and support of Political Parties and other stakeholders since the new date was still within the time allowed by law. 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 Commissioner of Police, FCT, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu; NYSC State Coordinator, Mr. Omotayo Adewoye; representative of Directorate of State Security Service Mr. Ilupeju Adebayo; and Administrative Secretary INEC, FCT, Mr. A.A Adamu.
