Southern Group Calls For Postponement Of Elections And Also Attahiru Jega's Arrest

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega who has been under immense pressure with few days to go ahead of the forthcoming elections has been alleged to have set out strategies to rig the elections as some Southern Nigerian elders, under the aegis of Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly, SNPA, have called for his sack, arrest and also the postponement of elections...

At a conference in Abuja where the allegations were made known, were a former Federal Commissioner for Information, Edwin Clark, former governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife; a member of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Femi Okunrounmu; and a former Information Minister, Walter Ofonagoro and several others.

“We authoritatively gathered with unassailable and incontrovertible evidence that the INEC Chairman, who was away in Lagos for an official engagement, through one of his National Commissioners that represented him, met with select leaders of the Northern Elders Forum, led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, on the 20th August 2014, where strategies and modalities for enthroning a President of Northern extraction through vote rigging were discussed and agreed upon...

“The meeting was sequel to an earlier meeting of Northern Elders Forum held on 16th August, 2014 at Arewa House, Kaduna, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Sule where it was resolved that all avenues must be explored towards enthroning a President of Northern extraction in the forthcoming 2015 elections.

"In addition, Jega reportedly directed the release of PVCs in their catchment states to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians and not necessarily to the voters themselves, a situation that culminated in some voters being in possession of two to three PVCs. 

“Despite Jega’s public admission that the Commission has all funds it requires to conduct the 2015 elections, the group was aware that the Northern Elders Forum obtained and distributed 150 pieces of laptops to INEC for each of the Northern states.

“This accounted for nearly 100 per cent PVC collection rate, especially in the North West states, as compared with less than 50 per cent collection rate in the Southern states. This is the reason why Lagos State, with a sophisticated population of over 5.2 million, has not been distributed more than 2.5 million PVCs.”