INEC confirms Nigeria 2015 Elections to hold in March, April 2015

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega has confirmed the postponement of the 2015 General Elections.

Jega made the confirmation on Saturday, February 7 during a press briefing.

The Presidential and National Assembly elections and the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections which were originally slated for February 14 and 28 will now hold on March 28, 2015 and April 11, 2015 respectively.

Jega stated that INEC was forced to postpone the elections due to security concerns after the necessary agencies warned that they would not be available to provide protection during the elections.

“There are a number of issues that are critical to elections like security which is not under the control of INEC. There are critical things that fall outside the control of an electoral management body. The security agencies reiterated that they will be concentrating their attention on the insurgency and may not be able to play the traditional role of providing security during the elections," Jega said.

"INEC is capable of delivering free and fair elections. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are other factors to conduct while planning elections like security. I'll like to reiterate here that INEC is an Electoral Management Body and not a security agency," he added.

"In consideration of the advice by the security agencies, it will be unconscionable to have elections without adequate security. Consequently the commission (INEC) has rescheduled the elections, Presidential Senatorial and House Of Assembly has been moved to March 28 [while] the Governorship and State House Of Assembly elections have been rescheduled to April 11," Jega continued.

"We wish to call on all Nigerians to accept this in good faith to deepen democracy in our country Nigeria. We in INEC promise to deliver free, fair and credible elections," the chairman concluded.

An official close to INEC had earlier told The Associated Press that tto enable a newly constituted multinational force to secure the troubled North-East which is currently plagued by Boko Haram attacks.