Breaking: INEC postpones general elections, announces new dates

The Independent National Electoral Commission has postponed the general elections due to commence on Saturday (today).
The postponement was announced in the early hours of Saturday by the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu.
While the Presidential and National Assembly elections were moved to February 23, the Governorship, House of Assembly and Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections have also been shifted from March 2 to March 9.
Yakubu said the shift was occasioned by logistic and operational problems.
He said the postponement will afford the commission the opportunity to address the identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of Nigeria’s elections.
The postponement of the election came after more than six hours of meeting between Yakubu and 12 National Commissioners of INEC in Abuja.
The meeting, which began Friday evening, ended in the early hours on Saturday.
Yakubu said the INEC will be meeting all stakeholders at 2pm on Saturday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja to explain the commission’s position.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, had hinted newsmen earlier that some decisions about the election had been reached and that the decision would be communicated later.
Oyekanmi said: “I can confirm to you that the INEC Chairman and the 12 national commissioners are in the meeting.
“Decisions have been taken and you will be addressed later.”
Presidential and National Assembly elections were scheduled to take place throughout the country today, while governorship and state assembly elections were slated for 2 March.
The national elections are expected to hold at 119,973 polling units across the country, while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas and 36 States and the FCT.
It will not be the first time that the commission would postpone a scheduled general election.
In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28, 2015, while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for February 28 were shifted to April 11.