The Federal Government has commenced the payment of February salaries to the civil servants ahead of the scheduled elections on Saturday.

This was disclosed to journalists by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

He said the payment of salaries to the civil servants is meant to ease the burden on those who want to travel for the Presidential elections.

“On the part of the Federal Government we decided that to make it easy for those who will want to go back to vote, salary payment started on Tuesday as opposed to the normal 25th of every month.

“This is just to ease the burden of people who want to go back and cast their vote”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last Saturday announced the postponement the general elections by a week, less than five hours to the start of the polls.

According to the commission, the Presidential and National Assembly elections, initially scheduled for, February 16, will now hold on February 23, while the governorship and state houses of assembly elections will take place on March 9.

INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced the decision at a short press briefing in the early hours of Saturday.

He explained that after a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan, and the determination to conduct free, fair, and credible elections, the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible.

The INEC boss also noted that the postponement will afford the commission the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of the nation’s elections.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

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