NMG

Efforts by the presidency to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, to proceed on terminal leave by March 1 and thus prevent him from conducting the forthcoming general elections may have hit the rocks.


A source in INEC told LEADERSHIP yesterday that the former university don and lecturers’ union boss would be in saddle to conduct the elections on the new dates of March 28 and April 11, this year.

Jega, who the presidency deems too independent-minded, was under intense pressure to throw in the towel prior to the Council of State meeting held at the presidential villa, Abuja, last week, in order to pave the way for a more pliable person to conduct the polls. Jega’s tenure ends in June.

Sources close to some of President Goodluck Jonathan’s inner circle have said that although Jega has shifted the date of the polls, the forces to get him out are still at work.

LEADERSHIP recalls that some of Jonathan allies, including his kinsman and political godfather, Chief Edwin Clark, had accused the electoral boss of conniving with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the polls.

Clark, a First Republic politician, had called for his resignation a few weeks back.

Apart from Clark, the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, Doyin Okupe, and the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, had also accused Jega of acting the script of the APC, saying he lacks the moral right to conduct the polls.

But speaking to LEADERSHIP yesterday, INEC’s director of voter education and publicity, Barrister Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, declared that Jega would conduct the polls rescheduled for March 28 and April 11, 2015, and that he was focused on the task of ensuring free, fair and credible elections.

Osaze-Uzzi added that the INEC chairman had given reasons upon which he would resign from office, noting that the focus of the commission was to make the forthcoming elections better than that of 2011.

Following the postponement of the elections, there have been insinuations that Jega, whose tenure expires in June this year, might be forced to go on a three-month terminal leave in line with the civil service procedure.

But Osaze-Uzzi said, “The rumour has been there for a while. And at the last press briefing, Jega addressed the issue of how he would resign. He gave conditions upon which he will resign.”

On whether the professor will conduct the elections, he said, “He (Jega) will conduct the polls. It is just like when I hear rumours about resigning my job, I will just concentrate on my job. I am sure that is the same attitude he has to the job.”

 FG’ll rout Boko Haram camps before March 28 – NSA

The national security adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), has said that the new date of the general election, March 28 and April 11, will not be moved again and that all known camps belonging to the Boko Haram sect will be destroyed before the rescheduled polls.

“All known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won’t be there. They will be dismantled,” Col. Dasuki told the AFP news agency.

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

The NSA said he believed the new military cooperation agreed two weeks ago between Nigeria and its neighbours – Cameroon, Chad and Niger – will prove decisive against the insurgents.

Dasuki had urged election officials on Saturday to postpone the polls 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.

His justification for the delay was widely criticised in part because the military is not primarily responsible for election security in Nigeria. Troops have only been called in when police and civil defence units have needed reinforcements.

Dasuki said there was no political motive underlying his call for a delay.

“It’s not everybody who does things for selfish reasons. Some of us have a conscience,” he said.

Dasuki said the postponement could easily help the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) because improved security could boost turnout in the northeast, an APC stronghold.

In a related issue, the minister of interior, Abba Moro, has expressed the hope that Boko Haram would be defeated in the next six weeks before the general election in March.

The minister told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation that the recent multi-national force was aimed to halt the insurgency.

“If the military demand six weeks extension for general elections, I see no reason to debunk their request because they can win the war against the Boko Haram,” he said.

“If the February election were to hold, I don’t think the citizens of the country will come to cast their votes due to security challenges,” he added.

 INEC extends collection of PVCs by 4 weeks

***Deadline Now March 8

Following the rescheduling of the 2015 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by registered voters.

The commission had fixed last Sunday as the deadline for distribution of the PVCs.

According to a statement by the secretary to the commission, Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu, “the collection of the cards will continue for four more weeks until March 8, 2015.

She said the commission hopes that this extension will avail every registered person yet to collect his/her PVC the opportunity to do so.

 Niger Army repels Boko Haram attack on prison

Troops of Niger Republic has repelled Boko Haram attacks in the southeastern town of Diffa after several hours of overnight fighting, witnesses and military sources told the Voice of America (VOA).

Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighbouring Niger overnight, hours before Niger’s parliament was due to vote on joining a regional offensive against the militants, witnesses said.

Heavy gunfire rang out as Niger’s army repelled the attack, Boko Haram’s third assault on the border town of Diffa in four days, residents and military sources told Reuters.

Niger’s parliament was set to vote yesterday on a measure authorizing troops to enter Nigeria and join the regional offensive against Boko Haram.

Forces from Chad and Cameroon have already clashed with the Islamist extremist group, which has killed thousands and controls dozens of towns in northeastern Nigeria.

Authorities ordered locals to stay in their homes and mounted roadblocks around the town by late morning. Residents said many had fled.

“It’s now evident that Boko Haram has its cells, its sleeper networks in the town and the region of Diffa,” said a military source there.

It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or wounded, or whether any of the prisoners were freed at press time.

A journalist in Diffa said he saw the bodies of Boko Haram fighters in a hearse despatched by the town hall, but he was unable to count them.

“Some Boko Haram fighters sought to hide in the town. The soldiers are looking for them, weapons at the ready. The army has encircled Diffa,” the journalist said.

A member of the National Guard, which runs prison security, said about 100 suspected Boko Haram militants were held in Niger, but none of them in Diffa.

We’ll resist any further shift in election date – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said any further attempt to frustrate the process of the general elections by whatever means, a postponement or otherwise, will be stoutly resisted.

The union, in a statement by its general secretary, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, stated that, against popular opinion and allegations of a sinister motive, INEC has been made to postpone the general elections.

He stated that the NLC was disappointed at the development, especially as it was hinged on insecurity.

The statement reads further: “We take very seriously the issue of security of Nigeria and Nigerians and we will not, for anything, advocate for putting on the line their safety. However, neither Boko Haram nor the general elections were sprung on us. We knew about both all along and we ought to have had contingency plans. This is why we find, as bogus, the excuse of insecurity.

“Now that INEC has been made to do the deed, we urge that it be the only postponement. Government should do all that is necessary to win and sustain the confidence of both Nigerians and the international community on the issue of elections, for therein lies the crux of democracy.”

The NLC further said that even though it was not at ease with the postponement, it nonetheless called on INEC to make the best use of the extension by ensuring preparations are foolproof including broadening the distribution of permanent voters cards.

He urged government to create an enabling environment, including declaring of public holidays, to enable workers collect their voter cards, and asked INEC to make the process less cumbersome.