The calls for the postponement of
this month’s general elections may
be discussed during Thursday’s
(tomorrow) Council of State
meeting convened by President
Goodluck Jonathan.
The council consists of the
President, the Vice-President, all
former Presidents or ex-Heads of
State, all former Chief Justices of
Nigeria, the President of the
Senate, all state governors and the
Attorney-General of the Federation.
One of the key responsibilities of
the body is to advise the President
in the exercise of his powers with
respect to the Independent
National Electoral Commission,
including the appointments of
members of the commission.
Proponents of the polls’ shift had
hinged it on the inability of INEC to
distribute enough Permanent Voter
Cards to registered voters. The call
is widely believed to be
engineered by the Presidency,
which though had denied the
charge.
INEC had however insisted that
there would be no postponement
of the elections.
The PUNCH however learnt from a
Presidency official in Abuja on
Tuesday that the Council of State
would review the preparations for
the elections by INEC and the
relevant security agencies.
He said that information available
to the government showed that
contrary to the claims by the
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru
Jega, the commission was not yet
ready for the elections.
For example, the official claimed
that INEC only awarded the contract
for the printing of ballot papers for
the February 14 presidential
election last Monday.
He wondered how the ballot
papers would be made ready
before February 14 which is the
first day of the polls.
The official said, “The truth of the
matter is that if urgent step is not
taken, Prof. Jega may end up
ridiculing this country.
“Available information shows that
the commission is not set for this
election contrary to Jega’s claim.
“We learnt he actually summoned a
meeting recently with a view to
postponing the election but he is
scared of the opposition who have
been kicking against such.
“This Thursday (tomorrow)
meeting will definitely review
INEC’s preparations and take a
stand.”
Another Presidency source also
informed The PUNCH that Jonathan
might use the opportunity
provided by the meeting to garner
support for the postponement of
the polls.
“The Presidency is not resting on
its oars concerning the plan to shift
the elections. It is already in talks
with some members of the
council,” he said.
On what the Presidency would do if
the plan fails, he replied, “we
would opt for another plan, which
is to return to the drawing board;
plan a new strategy on how to deal
with our opponents.”
To underscore the importance
Jonathan attaches to the meeting,
his re-election campaign rally
earlier billed to hold on Thursday in
Yenagoa, the capital of his home
state, Bayelsa, has been put on
hold.
It was gathered that the rally might
hold later in the day if the meeting
ended on time or be shifted to
Friday.
The PUNCH has however learnt that
some of the proponents of
election postponement might have
perfected plan to ensure that Jega
did not return as INEC chairman if
their plan materialises.
A week-long investigation by one
of our correspondents showed that
the Presidency was waiting
patiently for INEC to yield to the
pressure before coming out with
its real plan for Jega.
It was gathered that the Presidency
and the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party were not ready for the
elections and believed that their
chances could be affected if the
elections were held as scheduled.
Because of this, the Presidency,
backed by some hawks in the PDP,
are said to be waiting for an
auspicious time to ask the INEC
chairman to proceed on terminal
leave. His tenure ends on June 9,
2015.
The PDP source said, “The plan is
to discredit the election by forcing
postponement. When this is done,
sponsored people and groups
would start asking for the sack of
Jega.
“At this point, the government
would then say because of this, he
should proceed on terminal leave
and then ask the most senior
national commissioner to take over
and conduct the election.”
Jega’s nomination as INEC chairman
followed approval by a meeting of
the Council of State.
Jonathan had said then that he had
never known Jega, a former
chairman of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities.
Jega’s candidature for the job was
said to have been facilitated by a
presidency top official, Hassan
Tukur, who is from Adamawa State.
Parties disagree on
postponement
Indication that the 26 registered
political parties are divided over
the calls for the postponement of
the elections emerged in Abuja
with 16 of them and five
presidential candidates in support.
They told a news conference on
Tuesday that they would boycott
the polls if their opinions were not
respected.
The parties include the United
Democratic Party, the Citizen
Peoples Party, the Peoples Party of
Nigeria, the Action Alliance, the
Peoples Democratic Congress, the
Labour Party; and Unity Party of
Nigeria.
Others are the Alliance for
Democracy, the Democratic
Peoples Party, the New Nigerian
Peoples Party, the Peoples Party of
Nigeria and the Independent
Democrat.
The five presidential candidates at
the briefing were Godson Okoye,
Sam Okoye, C.O Allagoe, Tunde
Anifowose and Ganiu Galadima.
The political parties said, “We the
concerned leaders of political
parties have observed some
dangerous trends, which if not
checked may negatively and
adversely affect our democracy.”
The political parties premised their
argument for the postponement on
security, distribution of PVCs and
people deserting their places of
abode for their villages.
Okoye, who spoke on their behalf,
called on the Federal Government
to take necessary steps to provide
adequate security for Nigerians to
go out and collect their PVCs in
order to be able to exercise their
civic and constitutional duty.
He called on INEC to consider
shifting the date of elections to
sometime in March or April.
“We are not urging INEC to do
anything that is unlawful, illegal or
unconstitutional. It is unfortunately
becoming clear by the day that
most Nigerians appear not to be
ready for election but are ready for
violence,” he said.
He also flayed the United States
Secretary of State, John Kerry, for
meeting with only the
presidential candidates of the APC
Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and
Jonathan in Lagos.
But at a different news conference,
the presidential candidate of the
United Progressive Party, Chekwas
Okorie, condemned the call for the
postponement of the elections.
Okorie described the call as a
“mischievously contrived clamour.”
He said, “The reasons given by the
proponents of the postponement
that a great number of Nigerians
will be disenfranchised having not
been given their Permanent Voter
Cards which will enable them to
participate in the election is a
contrived reason and to a large
extent pedestrian.
“As we speak, over 80 per cent of
registered voters have received
their PVCs according to latest
figures released by INEC and this
may increase to 90 per cent or
above after the close of distribution
of PVCs on February 8 2015, as
planned by INEC.”
Meanwhile, INEC has distributed
977,727 out of the 1,494169 PVCs
received by its Ondo State office.
The state Resident Electoral
Commissioner, Mr. Segun Agbaje,
disclosed this to journalists in Abuja
on Tuesday.
He said that the distribution of the
cards to all the Local Government
Areas in the state would end on
Saturday.
Agbaje said,”We are preparing very
well for the elections as we ought
to do in line with the provisions of
the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
“All non-sensitive materials would
be deployed in the LGAs before the
end of the week as security
arrangements for their movement
are almost concluded.
“We received 1,494,169 PVCs out of
which we have distributed 977,727,
representing 65.4 per cent,
remaining 516,442 representing
34.6 per cent.”
On other preparations for the
elections, Agbaje said, ‘‘The
training of electoral officers had
been completed while that of
Supervisory Presiding Officers
started on February 2 and will end
on February 4.”
According to him, the training of
Presiding Officers and Assistant
Presiding Officers will be between
February 6 and 8.
He added that INEC in the state had
set up an Election Day Operations
Situation Room to directly receive
complaints and enquiries from
voters, observers, journalists and
the general public on the days of
the elections.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
