The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu addresses stakeholders on the situation of things with regards to the elections a day after polls.

Professor Mahmood noted in his address today to the stakeholders, that the Commission has taken an in-depth analysis of the situation of things around the nation, with a major focus at the hitches encountered during the conduct of elections.

Mahmood said voting took place nationwide on Saturday, stressing that Commission is happy with the generally peaceful conduct of citizens as they went to the polls to elect their next President and National Assembly members.

The chief electoral officer noted that on Saturday night, the Commission met and reviewed the processes and challenges arising from the conduct the electoral exercise, based on the information obtained from its state offices nationwide as well as the information harvested from various citizens contact platforms.

Below is the Full transcript of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s speech at the press conference:

“Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday millions of Nigerians trooped to the polling units to elect a President and members of the National assembly. Voting took place nationwide. the commission is happy with the general and peaceful patriotic conduct of citizens.

“Elections are always about the people and once again the Nigerian people have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and abiding faith in democracy and electoral processes. This will reiterate our commitments in protecting the sanctity of the ballots and integrity of the choices made by Nigerians at the polls.

“Last night, the commission met and reviewed the processes and conducts of the elections. The commission acknowledges there are places where materials didn’t arrive on time, resulting in delays of polls. We responded by extending the voting period to compensate for the loss of time. Our reports indicate that many citizens who would have other wise been disenfranchised had the opportunity to vote. Similarly, in spite of our best efforts to enhance the functionality of our smart card readers, we experienced some technicality issues in some locations. Through the deployments of 8,809 Area technical support staffs, engaged as Ad-hoc staffs, many of these faults were successfully rectified. This enabled voting to take place seemlesslyin some of the affected polling units.

“Yet there are places where voting could not proceed as a result of the failure of the smart card readers. There are places where materials arrived late for voting to proceed. after consultation with communities involved and in line with our regulations and guidelines, new smart readers have been reconfigured and deployed for elections in the affected polling units.

“Right now, the elections are ongoing or have just been concluded in some polling units in Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, plateau, Zamfara and one polling unit in Bianchi LGA of Sokoto state and in Kuchel area council of the federal capital territory.

“We are determined that every Nigerian Vote is important and must count.

“We have received preliminary reports and are closely monitoring the situation in Rivers, particularly some LGAs.

“We are similarly awaiting the detailed reports from our Imo office particularly in respect of the Owerri municipal local government areas.

“We are also aware of the incidents in some parts of ....

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