INEC: Senate Confirms Jega, Six Others

San Francisco, June 24, (THEWILL) - Professor Attahiru Jega and six other nominees were today confirmed by the Senate as Chairman and members of the Independent National Electoral Commission respectively.
The Senate charged them to set necessary machinery in motion to conduct a free and fair election next year.

Professor Jega was screened and drilled yesterday for about four hours, but the confirmation had to wait until today when other members of INEC would have been screened.

Those confirmed apart from Jega were Dr. Nuru Yakubu, Mrs. Thelma Iremiren, Prof. Olayiwola Olurode, Dame Gladys Nne Nwafor, Col. Hanamga Kurmi (rtd.) and Dr. Ishmael Igbani.

President Senate, David Mark, said they pledged to abide by the constitution and the Electoral Law and asked them to take their commitment seriously.

"They need to be fair, they need to be transparent and they need to conduct a free and fair election in 2011," Mark said.

However the confirmation of Mrs. Amina Zakari and Abdulkadir Oniyangi could not hold as they were not screened due to the fact that their bio-data were not made available to the upper legislative chamber, as Mark said their screening would be done as soon as they were received.