Baring last minute change, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will next Saturday, February 25 conduct the Presidential and National Assembly election.
The INEC said it has got the assurance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it would not suffer any encumbrance amidst the lingering cash scarcity while bulk payments for logistics is made through electronic transfer.
Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman made this known on Saturday after the inspection of the national collation centre for the presidential polls located at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The more than 1000 African hall of the International conference centre is designated for the collation, Taraba hall in the facility is to serve as media centre while the Executive hall in the centre will be used as situation room during the exercise.
Yakubu, who was accompanied by National Commissioners and top brass of INEC had earlier inspected the training of Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) for the election at the Government Secondary School, Garki in Abuja.
The INEC also chairman disclosed that the presidential candidates, including Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party; Peter Obi of the Labour Party, among others will sign the last peace accord on Wednesday, February 22.
He further said the commission was ready with the deployment of sensitive and non-sensitive and it is assured by security agencies of a secured environment for Nigerians to exercise their franchise.
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“As you know, we have our own role clearly cut out and others also have their own roles clearly cut out but the most important thing is that we are working together and the security agencies have assured us that they will secure the environment for elections nationwide. So we have no issues in that respect.
“We will deploy our platforms, call it citizens contact centre, where citizens can ask questions, respond to issues or challenges in the field, and will be able to in turn, also respond speedily to give citizens a happy voting experience.
“In essence, the 2023 general election is here. By this time next week, Nigerians will be voting in over 176,000 polling units for the presidential election. The choice made by Nigerians for the next president of the country will also be announced at this venue.
“The bulk of payment for goods and services is made through electronic transfer. But there are certain critical services that will be remunerated by cash, and that is why we went to the CBN for and it is a small percentage of the budget.
“The Central Bank has assured us that we will not suffer any encumbrances in that regard. So there are no issues with respect to that,” Yakubu assured.
