The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the governorship and states’ assembly elections till March 18, 2023.
The exercise was previously scheduled to hold on March 11, but INEC, citing a logistics crisis stemming from BVAS configuration and transportation, said the election could no longer proceed as scheduled following a meeting of its executives on Wednesday evening.
“The elections were postponed to allow one more week for preparations,” an official familiar with the meeting told Peoples Gazette by telephone on Wednesday night. “We should be able to get everything in order before March 18.”
The commission earlier today had convinced the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to vary its order granting Peter Obi of the Labour Party and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar permission to inspect the presidential election materials on the premise that it had to reconfigure the BVAS for the conduction of the polls this Saturday.
The electoral commission, despite having four years and a massive N355 billion budget to prepare, has a notorious history of postponing elections at the last minute due to concerns with preparedness.
In 2019, the commission under Mahmood Yakubu announced the postponement of the elections around 2:30 a.m. the same Saturday the elections were scheduled to hold.
Nigerians had hoped Mr Yakubu would have learnt from his 2019 experience and be better prepared to handle the 2023 elections supported by an even bigger budget and cutting-edge BVAS technology.
A similar incident occurred in February 2015 when the then-INEC chair, Attahiru Jega, shifted the presidential and governorship elections by one month.
This was after Mr Jega had postponed the presidential polls more than once in 2011 when he led the electoral commission.
An official statement has been given.
