The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says measures have been put in place to ensure that Nigeria’s February general elections will be of high integrity and difficult for anyone to manipulate.

A spokesman for the electoral body who spoke yesterday on Channels Television said that those expecting to rig the election would receive the shock of their lives.

Mr. Kayode Idowu, who serves as Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said that the INEC would distribute up to 90 per cent of the Permanent Voters Cards in their coffers before the elections begin in February.

He disclosed that out of the 45 per cent cards yet undistributed, a large number belonged to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) for whom, he said, a plan of action would be announced this week on how they would be accommodated in the forth coming electoral process.

“Substantial majority of IDPs especially those who are in camps, INEC will look for ways to get them to vote,” Idowu said.

Election campaigns are expected to begin this week and the INEC stressed that appropriate security measures were in place to ensure that the February elections would be of high integrity, with ballot papers and ballot boxes coded to ensure they would used only in particular polling units.

“The tendency of people using other people’s voters cards will not work in 2015. That is why we have the Permanent Voters Card which would be read by a card reader,” he said.

Mr Idowu said it was part of the strategies to ensure that the election could not be rigged.

He assured Nigerians that collection of cards was ongoing, urging them to go and pick their cards at the local government offices of the INEC

The INEC Chairman’s spokesman advised politicians to abide by the code of conduct they had signed. The code stipulates how politicians should conduct themselves during campaigns and other electoral processes.

•Photo shows Kayode Idowu.

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