Sacrifices by INEC Ensured Credibility of 2015 Polls, Says Jega

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital revealed that it was the sacrifices made by the electoral body that resulted in the credible and acceptable results of the just concluded general elections in the country.

Speaking at a retreat for State Resident Electoral Commissioners at Le’Meridian and Golf Resort, Prof. Jega gave the Electoral Commissioners a pat on the back for their sacrifices to ensure the last elections were successful.

“I want to commend you for all the good work you have done, which certainly was responsible for the success of the 2015 general elections. We had worked very hard, we had worked tirelessly; we have had to make enormous sacrifices in order to get the outcome that we had got. And one of those sacrifices was the untimely death of one of us, the electoral commissioner of Kano State, Abdullahi.

“These are sacrifices we had to make for our country because, as Nigerians, we want our country to progress and to develop, and we want the process of governance to satisfy the needs and aspiration of our people. We had been called upon to do our bit and we gave it our best”, he said.

Jega who spoke on the theme “2015 General Elections, Lessons and Way forward”, said the retreat was for the electoral commissioners to take stock of how the commission faired since 2011 to 2015 and possible areas on how to improve on future performance.

“I wish to start by congratulating all Resident Electoral Commissioners for a job well-done and for contributing to the success in conducting 2015 general elections.

“We had worked very hard, we had worked tirelessly; we have had to make enormous sacrifices in order to get the outcome that we had got.

“What we need to do and this is the opportunity this retreat offers, is for us to review what we had done from 2011 to 2015 and in particular, focus attention on areas of improvement.

“I think this is the very important feedback we need to give to the next commission and to those who will remain to continue to contribute to refurbish electoral process and deepening democracy in our country.

“I am happy about what we had done, and of course, I am bowing out because my tenure has expired. We all have tenures, and once our tenure expires, we all leave and other persons will come.

“We hope the next commission will keep on doing a better job than what we had done”, he stressed.

On the complaint that the commission was cooperating with aggrieved litigants over the conduct of the elections in some states of the federation, the INEC boss said, the commission was a law abiding institution and therefore would fully abide by tribunal instructions.

“INEC is law-abiding and we fully obey instructions of tribunal. When a tribunal says election materials should be inspected, we do everything possible to make it easy for the contending parties to inspect the materials.

“And if there are specific cases where delay occurs, there must be legitimate reasons for the delays. But we don’t work for any political parties as INEC", he said.