NCC boss, Danbatta sees meeting with INEC as boost for smooth 2019 polls
…As INEC commends NCC for rising to challenge
The Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta has described Wednesday’s meeting with the leadership of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) as a huge step toward entrenching free, fair and credible elections next year.
Otherwise, efforts toward free, fair and credible elections next year received a major boost from the meeting held to review the outcome of the report of the joint committee they set up early this year on electronic transmission and collation of results.
Danbatta who addressed journalists said “Remember this joint committee was set up 7 months ago. They’ve worked hard, and the whole idea was to produce a document on the basis of which elections can be conducted in a manner that’s conducive, credible, and of course, transparent. This can only be done by leveraging the power of Information Communications Technology. So this is to bring to bear global best practices in the way and manner elections are being conducted all over the world,” he stated.
Earlier, Yakubu had expressed his delight with the way the Prof Danbatta-led NCC picked up the gauntlet thrown by the INEC as well as the efforts of the joint committee of the two organizations’
He said “When we started we were clear in our minds that we must challenge every national institution to contribute towards free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria. We are happy that the NCC has risen to this challenge.
“And we look forward to implementing these recommendations. If there are other areas we need your collaborations we hope you will remain open to us to do so. But we are very happy that one major national institution has been challenged and has risen to the challenge,” he noted.
Business Hilights recalls that in January this year, the NCC and INEC, in a deal acclaimed to have the potential of playing a major role in the outcome of future elections in the country reached an agreement on the electronic transmission of results in the 2019 general election.
