Nine days to the first of the general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday unfolded its plans to forestall rigging.

For the umpteenth time, INEC boss Prof Attahiru Jega assured Nigerians that the elections would be credible. He vowed that he would not succumb to pressure to manipulate the polls.

Jega and other top officials of INEC spoke at a meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja.

Asked whether he was under pressure over the elections, Jega said: "Do I look like someone under pressure? Frankly, I am not under pressure from anybody. I have the capacity to absorb pressure. We are determined to do the right thing and we shall continue to do so; some of us take our oaths very seriously."

He identified human element as a likely problem, but vowed to prosecute whoever runs foul of the rules. "No matter what you do, some criminally-minded people will try to do something else; look at the case in Ibadan where the officer in charge of our ICT left others in the office and got apprehended in a hotel with DDC machines, and with people who are not INEC officials," he said.

Jega said the transfer of some electoral officials is likely before the elections. He said each of the 119, 973 polling units across the country had been given specific coding systems. This, he said, will make rigging virtually impossible.

Although Jega declined to make samples of the ballot papers available, as requested by the parties, INEC said the ballot papers will have different colour codes for different constituencies.

Director of Logistics of the electoral agency Alhaji Usman Farouk displayed samples of ballot boxes. They have polling unit-specific codes. This, according to Farouk, will forestall multiple voting and complement the efforts to make the Modified Open Ballot voting system efficient.

Two types of sophisticated indelible inks are to be used on voters’ fingers during accreditation and voting. Built-in checks will be employed at every level of result compilation to ensure that the election’s integrity is not compromised, said Director of Operations Mr. Okey Ndeche

Jega said electoral officials, security personnel and logistics vehicles would be camped in various local government areas on the nights preceding each of the elections. He said the surveillance systems to be used in monitoring INEC staff and potential electoral offenders would be much better than Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems.

INEC will acquire additional 100 Hilux four-wheel drive vehicles towards ensuring that at least one operational vehicle is available in each of the 774 local government areas. He said the Navy and the Air Force would be involved to ensure effective delivery of all materials in a safe and timely manner.

Jega ruled out the use of the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines during the elections because the law forbids the use of electronic voting.

Parties exchanged allegations of stoking violence and violation of Electoral Act.

Mr. Buba Galadima, who represented the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), consistently caused discomfort for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Organising Secretary Uche Secondus and National Auditor Mr Samuel Ortom. Both vehemently denied allegations that his party was behind violence across the country.

Party leaders expressed concern and fears that Electoral Officers who had spent close to 10 years in one place could threaten the elections.

Jega said 90 per cent of the intelligence report reaching him were inaccurate. He urged those with particular allegations to write formal petitions accompanied with appropriate evidence.

He said the security system put in place would eliminate some of these allegations.

The Director of INEC’s Legal department, Mr Ibrahim Bawa, said 20 parties are fielding presidential candidates; 53 parties are fielding candidates for various positions. There are 351 governorship candidates, 883 are vying for the 109 Senate seats and 2, 399 are contesting for House of Representatives.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) asked INEC to beware of manipulations from its Legal Department.

Chairman of Labour Party Chief Dan Nwanyanwu also urged Jega to take more interest in the activities of its legal department.

"There are problems in your Legal Department; names of our candidates in areas where we are strong went missing in INEC after an official in that department clearly told us that such candidates could only contest over her dead body. That is where Iwu’s problems started and we pray that problems from there would not rubbish your good name," he told Jega.

The letter signed by CNPP’s Secretary, Chief Willy Ezugu, dated March 18, 2011, was entitled "Protest against Double Standard on INEC’s List: The Case of Enugu, Anambra, Ogun, Katsina, Kano, etc".

According to CNPP, despite repeated affirmation by INEC, including a letter sent to all political parties by the Secretary of INEC that it would not accept any list of candidates emerging from primaries held after the January 15 deadline, some INEC officials still went ahead to accept PDP’s lists of candidates emerging from primary elections held after the deadline.

The CNPP’s protest letter to Jega a copy of which was sent to the United States Ambassador, the British High Commissioner and the EU Mission in Nigeria, said: "Unfortunately, and in total disregard to all the above, your commission has accepted the list of candidates from the PDP, which were purportedly nominated in primary elections held after January 15."