Plateau Postpones LG Polls Indefinitely
BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – The Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) on Monday postponed indefinitely the local government councils polls earlier billed for Saturday, February 17, 2018.
Addressing a press conference at the Commission’s premises in Jos, PLASIEC Chairman, Fabian Ari Ntung, said the elections stand postponed to a ‘later date’ in compliance with advice of the State security council.
He said official correspondence from the Council indicated that the present atmosphere in the state is not conducive for peaceful elections due to existing security threats.
Further explaining the situation, Mr Ntung said; “the general public, and particularly stakeholders in the political process in the state, are hereby informed that the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) is in receipt of a communication from the Plateau State Security Council stating that the present security atmosphere in the state generally, is not conducive for the conduct of the forthcoming local government councils elections scheduled for Saturday, February 17, 2018″ .
“Accordingly, it has advised that the elections be postponed pending the return to a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the exercise.”
The PLASIEC boss, who made reference to an earlier meeting held with the leadership of all participating political parties, maintained that barring the advice as communicated to the Commission by the State Security Council, they were ready to conduct the elections as scheduled.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission, before this development, had been well prepared and fully mobilized towards the conduct of this election on the earlier scheduled date”, he said.
Insisting that the development is neither a decoy nor programmed, Ntung led the media men on a facility tour of the logistics outlay ready for deployment, including all necessary sensitive materials duly marked according to electoral Units and local government areas.
He said the Commission has no security of its own, hence it yielded to the advice of Security Council, and the elections stand deferred.
