No further delay

Nigeria's elections will not be postponed past March 28, National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki told AFP in an interview yesterday, saying that Boko Haram fighters who forced the delay would be defeated within the coming six weeks.

"Those dates will not be shifted again," Dasuki said when asked if the polls, which had been initially scheduled for February 14, could be pushed back further.

The NSA for several weeks had been urging the Independent National Electoral Commission to reschedule the vote, offering a range of explanations.

Then last week, he wrote INEC chief Attahiru Jega urging a delay on the grounds that the military could not provide nationwide election security because all available resources were being deployed to the northeast to fight Boko Haram.

Troops have only been called in when police and civil defence units have needed reinforcements.

INEC's decision to postpone the polls at Dasuki's urging was criticised by civil society and many Western governments including the United States, Britain and Canada.

Asked if the militants can be defeated by election day, Dasuki said "all known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won't be there. They will be dismantled".