Military service chiefs have told the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] that no soldiers will be available to provide security anywhere in the country if it goes ahead with its plans to hold the presidential elections on Saturday next week because they are too busy with operations in the North East region.
The commission is expected to table this position, which has created for it a huge dilemma, at meetings planned for this morning with registered political parties, civil society groups and its resident electoral commissioners before it announces its final decision on whether or not to go ahead with the polls as scheduled.
Weekly Trust learnt yesterday that while all national attention was focused on last Thursday’s meeting of the National Council of State which failed to reach a consensus on whether or not the polls should be shifted, the military service chiefs had already advised INEC in writing to postpone the polls for at least six weeks.
The letter, Weekly Trust learnt, was sent to INEC chairman Professor Attahiru Jega on Wednesday by the President’s National Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki. The NSA said he was “strongly advising” INEC to postpone the polls on the basis of a letter which he received from Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.
