Nigeria's electoral chief not to resign before election

Nigeria's electoral chief Attahiru Jega on Monday cleared the air that he will not resign his appointment or go on terminal leave before the expiration of his tenure in June, despite widespread speculation in the West African country that this may not be the case.

The electoral chief addressed a town hall meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja, saying the idea of quitting his position before the election would be tantamount to a disservice to the country.

Nigeria's rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections will hold on March 28, while the governorship and state congresses elections will hold on April 11. The elections were postponed last month due to the country's security challenges.

Jega said the speculation about his resignation would not deter the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigeria's electoral body, from being focused on the forthcoming elections.

"No serious-minded person in my position will proceed on leave when there is a very serious job to be do," he said, adding he was not under any pressure to embark on terminal leave.

He said the electoral body had made provision for outstanding 700,000 permanent voter cards to be available for pick up by their real owners latest by Saturday. So far, only 80.61 electorates had received their voter cards since the collection exercise opened last year.

The electoral chief insisted there would be no going back on the use of the permanent voter cards for the elections, despite calls by certain interest groups for the temporary voter cards to be considered for the election. Endi