Polls Shift: Aviation Minister Absolves Ministry of Any Blame

Sirika Hadi

Polls Shift: Aviation Minister Absolves Ministry of Any Blame

 

Sirika Hadi, Minister of State for Aviation

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator on Sunday said the country’s weather was good for flight operations on the eve of the elections, contradicting claims made by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

Sirika who took to Twitter wrote, “INEC should say something else as weather was good for flight operations on eve of elections, similarly all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period!!!”.

It would be recalled that INEC had attributed part of the reasons for the postponement of the elections on weather. According to INEC Chair, Mahmood Yakubu, “unfortunately, in the last one week flights within the country have been adversely affected by bad weather. For instance, three days ago, we were unable to deliver materials to some locations due to bad weather”.

“The net effect of these is that there is usually roughly a one-month window for the Commission to print ballot papers and result sheets and either fly or transport them to several destinations until they finally get to each polling unit”.