'Lai Olurode and Attahiru Jega The decision of INEC to adopt the modified open ballot system entailed that the electoral procedure was broken into two phases with accreditation of voters between 8 a.m. and noon and voting by the accredited prospective voters from 12.30 p.m. Therefore, accreditation processes had commenced in large parts of the country with voters and many polling units officials not being aware of the logistical challenge that was to mark the elections, namely the non-delivery of result sheets by the contracted vendor for some states. The moment of shock was when the Chair of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega addressed the nation to announce the Commission's decision to postpone the National Assembly election form Saturday, 2 nd April to Monday 4 th April 2011. At that time, the elections were in various stages across the country. While accreditation was yet to commence in some polling units, most polling units were still accrediting, and some polling units had concluded and were waiting for 12:30 pm or for voting materials to commence voting. But in a few instances, voting had already commenced before the expected commencement time of 12:30pm. The cancellation however stopped completely the entire process across the country and invalidated all that been done up till that time. The National Assembly elections were eventually conducted on April 9, thereby shifting forward all voting days by a week. The event created huge doubts about the election process in some parts of the country and created the ideological foundations for the violence that emerged in some parts of the country. This development underscores the argument in the book about the multiple sources of violence including the political class and incumbents and even the electoral commission. 142 ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING Security Challenges of Election Management in Nigeria Violence is always an expensive affair. Besides the moral and psychological trauma that the post-election violence unleashed on the nation, the human and material cost of same was daunting. According to Mr. Hafiz Ringim, the then Inspector General of the Nigeria Police 1 , a total of 520 persons were killed in the post-election violence that erupted in Kaduna and Niger States alone. He explained that 518 persons, including 6 policemen were killed in Kaduna State while 2 persons were killed in Niger State. Also, 157 churches, 46 mosques and 1435 houses were burnt as well as 437, 219 motor-cycles, 45 properties(mainly police stations belonging to the police were also burnt”. The Human Right Watch claim was that total figure of casualties from the post-election violence in Nigeria was 800. They observed that the“protests degenerated into violent riots or sectarian Killings in the Northern States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, more than 65,000 people have been displaced. Implication on electoral process: postponed elections in Kaduna and Bauchi States; constitutional crises, turn out in re-scheduled elections, boycott of elections by some corpers.” 2 1 Hafiz Ringim, 2011 General Election, Review: Experience-Sharing, Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward The Nigeria Police Perspective being a paper presented at a post-election colloquium organized by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja, June 1 2011 2 Human Rights Watch: Nigeria: Post-Election Violence Killed 800 (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/16/nigeria-post-election-violence­killed-800) ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING 143