Prof. Attahiru Jega

Chuks Okocha

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Tuesday said that it was not planning to relocate The Electoral Institute (TEI) from Abuja to Oghara in Delta State.

A statement signed by Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC’s Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said: “This is to correct the misrepresentation of comments made by National Commissioner, Dr. Ishmael Igbani, on plans by the commission for the Oghara facility, as reported in some newspapers on Tuesday, September 18, 2012.”

According to Idowu, “The Oghara facility has for many years been an annex of the TEI which is headquartered in Abuja , but it had been virtually abandoned and disused. But with the ongoing reform and restructuring of INEC, and particularly the TEI, the Oghara centre would be reactivated and made fully functional as a training facility.”  He said that TEI, as Igbani said, is being reorganised to a full-fledged institution for the training of electoral staff, towards professionalising election administration.

“Its services will not be limited to the staff of INEC, they will be extended to State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECS) as well as other Election Management Bodies (EMBs) in Africa.”

Accordingly, the statement from INEC said, “Under the new dispensation, TEI will host visiting scholars from within and outside Nigeria on sabbatical programmes and undertake in-depth research on election management.”