The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified likely black spots in the February 12 Area Council elections. INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at a second meeting with members of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) yesterday told them that the commission evaluated the risk to the election using the Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT).

INEC had held a meeting with the ICCES on January 20, but scheduled yesterday’s meeting to receive briefings from the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the Commissioner of Police for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the security situation and their state of readiness for the election. Yakubu said the meeting was “to identify early warning signals that could assist the security agencies and other stakeholders in devising and deploying appropriate mitigation strategies.” The INEC chairman added that the commission discovered areas of concern to include “threats specific to geographical locations, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the issue of hard drugs, presence of insurgents and armed groups, intra and inter-party conflicts and incidents. (New Telegraph)