15th February, 2019
As at the time of filing this report, the meeting being held at the INEC office in Maitama Abuja, the nations’s capital, is ongoing.
The agenda of the meeting is unknown, it is, however, gathered that the meeting might not be unconnected with the inability of the electoral commission to successfully distribute election materials to the distribution centres and polling units across the federation.
It was also gathered that the meeting, chaired by Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, might suggest postponing Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in order for the electoral commission to resolve the issue of logistics.
An INEC official dismissed insinuations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the electoral commission deliberately decided not to distribute all sensitive and non-sensitive materials in order to postpone the elections on the orders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Those saying this is a deliberate act are being economical with the truth. Those states that are yet to receive voting materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria is as a result of one challenge or the other.
“In some places, planes conveying the materials could not land because of bad weather… so it’s far from the truth that this is deliberate,” the source told The Cable.
If the elections are officially postponed, this will not be the first time in recent history that general elections in the country would be postponed.
The 2011 general elections were postponed just a few hours into the election due to insufficient materials.
Also, the 2015 general elections were postponed to allow the military rout out the insurgent group, Boko Haram, in order for residents of the North-East geopolitical region to participate in the elections.