The Independent National Electoral Commission in Nigeria (INEC) on Friday night announced a shift in the general elections dates to February 23 and March 9 respectively.

The new schedule was announced by the Chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, early Saturday morning after an emergency meeting with security officials, election observers and other political stakeholders.

He said the postponement was due to logistic and operational reasons.

According to him, the new dates for the elections are 23 February and 9 March for the Presidential and National Assembly, as well as the governorship, state houses of assembly and FCT Area Council elections respectively.

It would be recalled that the Presidential/National Assembly Election was initially billed for today February 16 while the Governorship/States Assemblies election was billed for Saturday, March 2.

According to Prof. Yakubu, “the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the election is no longer feasible.”

He added that “This was a difficult decision for the commission to take but necessary” for the success of the elections.

The National Assembly had in October last year approved the sum of N242.245bn for this year’s elections.

Out of the amount, INEC got N189bn, while the police was allocated N27.3bn. The DSS got N10.2bn; NSA’s office, N9.4bn; N2.628bn for Nigerian Immigration Service, and N3.573bn for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

NEWSACROSS recalls that in 2015, the Commission headed then by Professor Attahiru Jega had shifted the Presidential/National Assembly Election date from February 14 and Governorship/States Assemblies election date billed for February 28 to March 28 and April 11, 2015 respectively, citing security reasons.