The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance when he received a delegation from the European Union (EU), led by its Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Ketil Karlsen, at the commission’s headquarters on Wednesday in Abuja.
Yakubu said the commission was at the moment putting finishing touches to the preparations for the elections.
“All heavy items for the election are being procured; additional ballot boxes, voting cubicles, replacement of card readers, and Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have also been delivered to states for collection.
“We have concluded and published the guidelines for the general elections. We have finalised the manual for election, which will be used for training of various staff.
“We are recruiting and we will soon start training of ad hoc staff for the election. We are good to go for general elections,’’ he said.
Yakubu assured that the commission is not going to fail the nation and the international community in the conduct of the elections.
Speaking earlier, Karlsen said that the mission was in Nigeria to ensure that free, fair and credible elections were conducted.
He said the international community and the missions were not in the country to support particular candidate, political party or ideology.
“What we are here for is to see the continuation of consolidation on the democracy,” he said.
Karlsen said beyond large population, Nigeria is critical to Africa and the entire world.
The British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, advised INEC to continue to maintain its independence.
Laing expressed confidence in the ability of INEC to conduct free and fair elections.
David Young, Charge D’Affaires, U.S. embassy, stressed the need for security agencies to be neutral in the elections.
“The neutrality of the security service is one of the important factors for credible election,” he said.