Ahead of March 28 presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the nation’s security agencies met yesterday to assess the level of security for the general elections.

Hitherto, INEC had on February 7, 2015, shifted the general elections and hinged its decision on security concerns in the country, particularly in the north eastern states of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe.

Consequently, yesterday’s meeting with security agencies over the election was aimed at assessing the level of security attained that could make the polls to go ahead as rescheduled.

The Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, said “it was a routine meeting that evaluates the environment. Incidentally, this level is not a policy thing; this meeting is operational meeting, which is to plan, of course, for the election.”

On the level of cooperation with NYSC ahead the election, Kayode emphasized that immediate past NYSC members would still be engaged for the election duties owing to the election training they had acquired.

He said the NYSC had earlier “kept these people in camps because of the election. But now that there is a shift, there is no basis for you to keep on holding them in camps. Yes, they kept them in camp for INEC and when the elections are rescheduled, you can’t hold them in camps for six weeks.”

On the implication of engaging the youth since they are no longer under the NYSC scheme, “They are the same people who were recently in the NYSC. The only difference is that because of the time of the rescheduling, they are no longer in camp for the NYSC,” Idowu explained.