As Nigerians troop out to cast their votes in an historic election, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega on Friday in Abuja said that the results of this Saturday's Presidential and National Assembly elections would be declared within 48 hours.
In a related development, President Jonathan has charged all political parties and politicians to allow the free, unfettered will of Nigerians to be expressed without any hindrance in today’s election; The opposition All Progressives Congress urged the government not to thwart the will of Nigerians.
Jega stated this during a joint press conference with the Director General of the National Youth Service Commission (NYSC), Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi on last minute preparations for the polls.
Jega said that the commission was making all efforts to ensure that results are disclosed much earlier than in 2011.
He said that the confidence the commission had on the 48-hour period for result was based on the improvements the commission had made since 2011.
He however added that not all states would be able to get results within 24 hours.
THISDAY gathered the results of the Presidential election would be released at the International Conference (ICC) in Abuja.
The INEC boss also debunked allegations that a purported master key for the commission's data base had been compromised noting that the data base of INEC “does not use master key but source code for encryption and decryption.”
Jega who was replying to an allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Campaign Council that the master key was in possession of the APC, said only the producers of the data base infrastructure of INEC have the source code.
The INEC chairman also defended the award of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to ACT Technologies Ltd said that the company passed all Due Processes at the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and got approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC). He said the company was never blacklisted.
The INEC chairman said that the Chairman of ACT Technologies wrote the commission that two of their staff were arrested, claiming that the arrest could affect production of the company, but certainly not the general elections.
The INEC chairman further regretted that the allegations over the compromise of its data base was baseless and had the propensity to threaten the credibility of the election.
Jega further noted that the process of awarding the contract to company passed all required due process.
He said "it is regrettable that people can say all sorts of things and get away freely with it. It is a last minute attempt to undermine the credibility of the elections."
He further stated that there was no disagreement with the Inspector-General of Police, Suleman Abba, over whether to vote and go or vote and stay, noting that voters would have the choice of waiting or staying after casting their votes.
He however said the presence of voters during the counting of votes would enhance the credibility of the polls.
Jega however cautioned corp members recruited by INEC for the election to take the assignment with all seriousness it deserves, noting that their security and welfare had been taken care of.
He hailed the role of Corps members in enhancing the electoral process.
On his part, the DG of the NYSC, urged the corp members to handle the assignment with high integrity.
He urged them to stay away from any temptation that might tarnish the image of the scheme, families and nation
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