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Nigeria Panel Says Vote to Go Ahead


FILE - An official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sorts Permanent Voters card (PVC) of voters at a ward in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 12, 2023.
FILE - An official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sorts Permanent Voters card (PVC) of voters at a ward in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 12, 2023.

Nigeria's electoral commission said Wednesday that elections would go ahead as scheduled this month despite growing tensions around currency and fuel shortages.

Following a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after two terms in office, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said steps were being taken to address those challenges.

"Rest assured that the election will hold as scheduled, on the 25th of February for national (elections) and on the 11th of March for state elections," he said.

Nigeria often struggles with fuel shortages but queues outside petrol stations have been particularly bad in Lagos this week.

After saying that "arrangements may be negatively affected by the non-availability of (fuel) products," INEC met with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to address the issue.

Yakubu said the plan was for the NNPC to dedicate "over 900 land mega stations as well as floating mega stations nationwide, for the purpose of stocking products."

This, he said, would "ensure that the Commission doesn't suffer any encumbrances in movement of personnel and materials for the election."

Another major challenge for Nigerians in the run-up to the elections is a measure by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to issue new banknotes in an effort to crackdown on currency counterfeiting and ransom payments to kidnappers.

The deadline to swap old notes was initially the end of January, but due to a lack of notes available at banks, the CBN postponed it to Feb. 10.

Queues at cash machines are huge and several protests broke out in the southwestern town of Abeokuta on Tuesday and in the northern city of Kano last week.

The INEC chairman said that the CBN had assured them that elections would not be affected by the currency swap, without giving further details.

Eighteen candidates are running for president, led by Bola Tinubu of the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition party Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party's Peter Obi.

Candidates of two main parties have traded accusations of blame over the shortages with the ruling party hopeful suggesting his rivals had manufactured the crisis to undermine his election chances.

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