True to bookmakers’ predictions and recent pressure on the Chairman of Nigeria’s electoral body, Prof. Atahiru Jega to urgently postpone the 2015 polls, owing to non availability of the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC), the Independent National Electoral Commision (INEC) has postponed the 2015 general elections to the 28th of March for presidential and National Assembly elections and the 11th of April for governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

The postponement was announced by Jega during a press briefing at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, shortly after several meetings with 25 civil society groups.

According to Jega, the postponement of the elections is informed by security concerns raised by the security agencies and the insistence of the military that it would not be able to support the Police and other security agencies involved in providing security for the elections scheduled for February 14 and 28.

Jega, who had an earlier meeting with political parties, also met with his 36 resident electoral commissioners on INEC position to postpone or go ahead with the elections.

Jibrin Ibrahim, an election expert and senior fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja, who attended the meeting, quoted Jega as saying that “security operatives from all the agencies insisted that they were commencing a six weeks special operations against Boko Haram insurgents in the north eastern corridors of the country and would rather not be distracted by the elections.

Jega further disclosed that the security forces said the operations are due to commence on February 14, the date INEC had planned for the presidential and federal legislative elections.

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