Jega Cancels Meeting With RECs Over Card-Reader Testing

The Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has shifted his meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners to Wednesday, March 11.

The meeting, which was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday (yesterday), was to enable the commissioners to give the chairman feedback on the collection of the Permanent Voter Cards and other preparations for election.

It was gathered that on March 12, INEC would finalise preparations for the March 28 and April 11 general elections.

It was learnt that the meeting was shifted to enable RECs to give Jega results of card- readers’ testing on Saturday.

There were fears at INEC on Monday that some pro-government RECs might pass a vote of no confidence on INEC chairman at meeting, initially scheduled for Wednesday.

The vote of no vote confidence, it was gathered, was planned to be a prelude to Jega’s removal by the Federal Government.

It was, however, learnt that the said pro-government commissioners might have had a change of mind because of the growing opposition to the alleged plan to remove Jega.

ADVERTISEMENT

But investigations revealed that Jega’s supporters were not letting down their guards despite the alleged change of mind of the pro-government RECs.

It was learnt they had decided to wait till the end of the election before they could believe President Goodluck Jonathan, who had said that he would not remove Jega.

The House of Representatives and civil rights groups have warned against Jega’s removal, adding that he must not be sent on terminal leave.

But Jonathan had, in an interview with Aljazeera on Monday, said that there was no plan to sack Jega.

But it was learnt that Jega’s supporters in the commission were taking the President’s assurance with a pinch of salt.

A senior INEC official, who confided in The PUNCH, said, “It seems the few government apologists are making a U-turn on the vote of no confidence against Jega.

“They have realised that the mood in the country is not favourable to that, but those of us backing the chairman are not letting down our guard.

“With the sustained campaign against the use of PVCs and voter cards, anything can still happen. Their main grouse against Jega is the insistence on the use of card readers and PVCs. The chairman, however, has a support among commissioners on these and other issues.”

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, in an email to our correspondent, confirmed that the meeting had been shifted.

“The meeting will now hold on Wednesday, March 11, 2015,” he said.

He, however, denied a claim that the planned vote of no confidence was in the agenda of the meeting.

He further explained that it was commission’s meeting with RECs, adding that it was scheduled to finalise preparations for the general elections.

Idowu stated, “The commission’s (not Chairman’s) meeting with RECs was a long scheduled operational meeting to finalise preparations for the general elections.”

The CPS explained that the meeting was shifted so that RECs could give reports on the testing of card readers, which would hold on Saturday.