INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
Stephen Angbulu, Abuja
With 16 days to the presidential election, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday said the February 25 and March 11 elections would hold despite the twin challenges of fuel and naira scarcity across the country.
Yakubu revealed this to State House Correspondents shortly after briefing the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and other members of the Federal Executive Council at the State House, Abuja.
He said the commission had settled the two major possible obstacles to its operations: fuel and naira scarcity, having received the assurances of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
“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.
According to the INEC boss, the NNPCL will make available the use of its 900 land mega stations as well as floating mega stations nationwide to ensure that the commission suffers no challenges in moving personnel and materials for the elections.
He continues, “The second one is the currency issue. Again, we had an engagement yesterday with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“And he assured us that the commission would not suffer an encumbrance on that score. Fortunately for us, all our accounts, national and state, are with the apex bank.
“So, we raised those challenges and we have found a solution to those challenges. Rest assured that the elections will hold as scheduled on February 25 for national and on March 11, for the state elections.
However, Mahmood declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision to restrain the Federal Government from proceeding with the new naira policy.
