The Federal Government on Friday further
compounded fears in some quarters that the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, could be sacked
before the general elections.
In an answer to enquiries on government’s
stand on allegation that the INEC boss would soon be asked to proceed
on a terminal leave, the Federal Government through the Minister of
Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, gave a
rather ambiguous answer.
He said the exit of Jega from the
chairmanship of the INEC would take a natural course. Duke, who is also
the supervising Mtinister of Information, spoke with journalists at the
headquarters of the Ministry of Information in Abuja on Friday.
While answering a question on whether the
Federal Government planned to send Jaga on terminal leave before the
expiration of his tenure in June, Duke said Jega would not be sacked as
President Goodluck Jonathan had pledged, but added that his exit from
the electoral body would be a natural sequence.
The minister said, “On the issue of the
INEC chairman, I align myself with what the President said that he has
no plan to sack the INEC chairman.
“That is not to say that if it is time
for the INEC chairman to naturally exit his office, then the natural
course of things will not take place.
“It is like saying a civil servant has
done 35 years or achieved the age of 60; we now begin to say that he
must not retire or he must retire. I think all of that is in the terrain
of the Presidency and he has spoken. I have nothing to add to that.”
Duke added, “I will also like to say once
on that issue. I recall that for several weeks now; people keep
threatening the President on the shift in the date of the poll. You
begin to wonder that parties have a couple of extra weeks in order to
reinvigorate their campaigns and try to reach as many voters as
possible. Rather than do that, you begin to identify imaginary pockets
of unlikely developments and then focus your attention on them and then
when you lose election, you begin to complain.”
But members of the All Progressives
Congress in the Senate and the Northern Elders Forum said that they
would resist alleged plot to sack the INEC boss.
The senators had on Thursday alleged that
there was a fresh plot by the Federal Government to prevent Jega from
superintending over the forthcoming general elections.
The Northern Elders Forum warned against
attempts to remove Jega and insisted that the elections must hold within
the timeline allowed by the law.
The APC senators, led by George Akume,
told a news conference in Abuja that they heard from a reliable source
that the Head of Service would direct Jega to proceed on his
pre-retirement leave next week.
“We have received information from a very
credible source that next week, the INEC Chairman will be given a
letter from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service to proceed on a
terminal leave,” they said.
The opposition senators alleged that the
Federal Government was trying to use a circular from the HoS dated
August 11, 2010 to place Jega on compulsory pre-retirement leave.
They threatened to resist any attempt by
the presidency to either suspend or remove Jega before the March 28
presidential election.
Some of the senators, who spoke with one
of our correspondents on the issue on Friday, said they would employ
legal and constitutional means to ensure that Jega conducts the next
general elections.
Akume said President Goodluck Jonathan
has the right to remove Jega, but could not unilaterally do so without
seeking the permission of the National Assembly through a two-third
majority.
He, however, said that Jonathan does not have the legal powers to suspend the INEC boss under whatever guise.
He said, “Section 157(1) clearly states
that the President can only remove Jega with the vote of 2/3 majority of
all senators. Under whatever guise whether suspension, retirement or
voluntary leave, he cannot be removed.
Akume said, “ Section 157 (1) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended), the President cannot remove the INEC
Chairman from office without getting approval of the Upper Chamber.
“Section 157 (1) of the constitution
reads: “…a person holding any of the offices to which this section
applies may only be removed from that office by the president acting on
an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that
he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the
office.”
He said, “We will resist any attempt by
the presidency to sack jega for any sinister reasons. We will continue
to say no to impunity and any attempt to undermine the credibility of
the forthcoming general elections. We would never accept.
“We condemn what the Federal Government
is trying to do. We will rise up and defend our democracy. This is the
Road to Golgotha, the road to Armageddon. These people want to destroy
this country completely and we will resist it.
“We are waiting for the president to
bring the notice before the National Assembly and we will decide on its
legality or otherwise.”
Also Senator Ahmed Lawan, (APC Yobe
North), admitted that the President has the constitutional powers to
remove Jega if he so wishes but that there is a procedure contained in
the constitution.
He said, “The National Assembly must pass
a resolution backed by two-third majority of members either giving
accent to the request or not. That is the only way that the Chairman of
the INEC could be removed. The President cannot do it alone.”
Senator Babafemi Ojudu, (APC Ekiti
Central) said, “The President cannot suspend Jega because he has no such
powers in the constitution. There is no law which empowers the
President to suspend anyone who was legally appointed to occupy a
position for a period of time.”
Ojudu said his colleagues were raising
the alarm because the information about the plot to sack Jega was made
available to them hence they would not ignore it.
He said, “We have met, and we are still
going to meet over the issue. We are watching and already considering
all lawful and constitutional options even pre-emptive strategies to
make sure that this democracy is not truncated through Jega’s sack”
Addressing a press conference, the
spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said that
sacking Jega now would be a recipe for disaster.
Abdullahi said, “With regards to Jega’s
tenure, any attempt at this last minute by this government or its agency
to remove the INEC chairman is a clear message that the Presidency is
determined to rig the presidential election in which its sees Jega as an
impediment simply because he thinks that the commission must follow the
rules for a free and fair and credible election.”
While lamenting that the February
elections were postponed on “flimsy, clumsy and indefensible” reasons,
he said the electoral body had for several months now been consistent
and emphatic on its readiness to organise and conduct the 2015 elections
in February.
He noted that the insecurity excuse given
for the postponement of the elections must “fail because only a small
fraction of the security personnel in the country are directly engaged
in the fight against insurgency within the North-Eastern enclave of the
country.”
Abdullahi said, “Assuming that the
soldiers are needed, we need to know that of the about 180,000 soldiers
in uniform only about 20,000 are currently in the North-East of the
country.”
Meanwhile, most national and resident
electoral commissioners have expressed their support for Jega over his
readiness to conduct the polls.
They asked him to reject alleged plan by the Presidency to send him on terminal leave.
From Punch
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