Senate to Jega on 30,000 polling units: Reverse the decision

The Senate on Tuesday described the creation of additional polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission as a good development, but with wrong timing.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Andy Uba, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists, said the Senate had made its position known to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attairu Jega.
Uba said the Senate had asked Jega to rescind the decision.
He said: “We have sent a letter to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and we expressed our reservations over the planned creation of additional polling units across the country.
“What he is doing is good but the timing is wrong.
“We are close to an election year and we have so many displaced people in the North Eastern part of the country.
“So where will the INEC put the new polling units?
“If they (INEC) continue with it (new polling centres), we will pass a resolution to overrule it.
“It is simple.
“And once we pass our resolution, is he going to go ahead that he doesn’t care?
“There are consequences when you say you don’t care.
“That is what it is but I know he (Jega) is a gentleman and he is a man that keeps to his words.
“We had a meeting and had sent him a letter.
“He should know that his integrity from what people are saying is at stake but that is not our business.
“And I don’t believe that there is nothing he has in mind against anybody or anything.”
Uba, who explained that the exercise would go a long way to solve the problems, which the electorate usually encounters at polling centres, however, maintained that the grouse of his committee with INEC was the timing.
He said: “There are over 4,000 registered voters in Wuse 2 in Abuja, for instance, and you know the inconvenience when 4,000 people are expected to queue up in a line.
“It is not possible for all of them to be accredited before voting would start.
“Many people will come and would be turned back.
“It (the exercise) is a good idea but the timing is wrong.
“That is all we are saying.
“Nobody is saying what they did was wrong and some people are saying there is ulterior motive.
“There is no ulterior motives in it.
“That is not the issue.
“INEC needs time to educate people to let them know that their names had been moved to a different Polling Unit, but it is a good idea because it will decongest these Polling Units.
“Five hundred names each.
“It makes things work faster.
“When you come in, you will get accredited and you will vote and go, but when you have 4,000 names in each centre, that is a problem.”