jega Receives call to quite INEC Job

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has been advised to quit his job as INEC boss rather than take actions capable of destabilising the electoral process ahead of the 2015 general elections over primordial sectional sentiment.

Giving the advice yesterday, against the background of a recent query issued some resident electoral commissioners pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, expresses the views that the query was a vindictive action taken because of the botched additional polling units proposed by Jega.

“The attention of Afenifere has been drawn to the query the chairman of the INEC, reportedly issued to mostly southern resident electoral commissioners over his botched attempt to create lopsided 30,000 new polling units.

“The query dripping with venom was issued the very day Jega announced the suspension of the controversial exercise.  If it was true that the said query was issued on sectional focus on matter in which the INEC chairman betrayed unpardonable primordial insensitivity, we are bound to conclude that Jega is becoming more dreadful to the health of the polity than the murderous Boko Haram.

“Even without its lopsidedness in favour of Jega’s region of the country, the whole idea of creating new polling units a few months to election was a product of inferior scholarship on election for a man from intellectual region hailed across the country in 2010 as a ‘man of integrity’ when he was nominated for the job in 2010.

“It is equally baffling that rather than addressing the glaring incompetence of INEC which have seen it bungling the distribution of PVCs for data captured four years ago, Jega would now be occupied with fighting a war of attrition within the commission.

“Afenifere advises Jega to withdraw the query immediately and concentrate on plans for the elections. However, if he is far too gone into his sectional agenda, he should step aside from INEC and move over to any of the fora promoting what he desires,” Afenifere contended.