National Security Adviser tells INEC to postpone next month's elections

National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone next month's general election so that the commission can completely distribute the millions of biometric ID (Also known as permeant voters cards) to prospective voters.

Dasuki gave this advice while speaking at London think-tank Chatham House today January 22^nd January 2015. He said a postponement within the next three months allowed by the law would be a good idea so that all issues bordering on the distribution of permanent voters card as well as elections holding in some part of North eastern Nigeria would be adequately addressed.

The main opposition coalition said it would oppose any postponement, and the electoral commission said it had not received any such official communication from Dasuki.
The elections, currently scheduled for Feb. 14, will be the first where Nigeria's 68.8 million voters must have a biometric cards -- a measure introduced to guard against fraud that has plagued past polls.

But there have been technical glitches in data collection and officials have not explained how they will hold the election in parts of the northeast gripped by a violent uprising by Islamist Boko Haram rebels.