Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, declared on Wednesday that the polls on February 25 and March 11 would go as scheduled despite nationwide fuel and currency shortages.
Soon after briefing the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), and other Federal Executive Council members at the State House in Abuja, Yakubu disclosed this to State House Correspondents. reiterates
He claimed that after receiving guarantees from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the commission had resolved the two biggest potential challenges to its operations: fuel and naira scarcity.
“I can tell you two of these challenges quickly. The first one is availability of petroleum products.
“ We had a meeting with the National Union of Road Transport Workers and they raised that as an issue of concern.
“Immediately after that meeting, we interfaced with the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and right now there’s a technical committee working,” Yakubu said.
The NNPCL would make use of its 900 land mega stations as well as floating mega stations across the country, according to the INEC chairman, to make sure that the commission faces no difficulties moving workers and election-related supplies.
“The second one is the monetary issue,” he explains. Once more, we had a meeting with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria yesterday.
He gave the assurance that the commission wouldn’t be burdened on that front. “Fortunately, the apex bank holds all of our accounts—both national and state. We have a solution to the issues we raised and problems we faced. Be confident that both the national and local elections, which are set for February 25 and March.”