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No further postponement of Nigeria elections: electoral chief

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

There will be no further postponement of Nigeria's general election, Attahiru Jega, the country's electoral chief said Thursday, dousing speculation of a second time shifting of the polls.

Nigeria's rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections will be held on March 28, while the governorship and state congress elections will be on April 11.

The elections were previously set on Feb. 14 and Feb. 28 respectively. The West African country announced on Feb. 7 a six- week postponement to the elections, citing fears over security and the Boko Haram insurgency.

Speaking at the national briefing of accredited observers for the general election at the Nigerian capital Abuja, Jega said the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigeria's electoral body, was ready to conduct the election and there would be no reasons for another postponement.

"This (forthcoming) election will hold as scheduled. Over 81 percent of permanent voter card collection had been achieved," the official said.

He said the electoral body had trained and re-trained its ad hoc and permanent staff ahead of the election, particularly on the rudiments of polls and how to operate the electronic card readers procured for the general election.

"We will do everything to ensure that the elections are successful," he said.

Earlier, the Nigerian police had said it was ready to provide adequate security for the national polls and its officers would be deployed and ordered to provide water-tight security across Nigeria, Africa's most populous country before, during and after the elections.

To prepare a safe and secured ground to guarantee hitch-free elections, the Nigerian police chief said police officers would be on guard around all key and vulnerable points, such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, media houses, service providers installations, headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission and voting centers, banks, hospitals, hotels and government offices, among others. Endi