The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Inec

  • INEC tasks religious leaders on political violence

    The Independent National Electoral Commission in Oyo State, on Wednesday, pleaded with religious leaders to start preaching against political violence in their various local assemblies.

    The commission sensitized religious leaders on the need to educate their followers on what is expected of them during the forthcoming elections.
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    The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Amb. Rufus Akeju, took the anti-violence campaign to the religious leaders at a sensitization programme in Ibadan, the state capital.

    He also emphasized the need for them to educate their followers on their obligations and others expected of them during elections.

    Akeju, who addressed both Christian and Muslim clerics, said they can have high level effect on the activities of their followers, hence the timing of the meeting.

     

  • Soyinka to EFCC, ICPC, INEC: probe Ekiti rigging plot

    Soyinka to EFCC, ICPC, INEC: probe Ekiti rigging plot

    •Nobel laureate calls on EFCC, ICPC, INEC to probe Ekiti rigging plot

    The controversy triggered by the audio tape of how some politicians met with an Army General to plot the rigging of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State drew the reaction of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka reaction yesterday. In the literary icon’s view, democracy does not begin and end with the ballot box. He says the admission by all dramatis personae in the plot is enough ground to spur anti-corruption agencies and the electoral umpire into action.

    The “Advertorial” – full front page of Punch, February 23, 2015 – sponsored by Mr. Ayo Fayose (aka “No Apology”) deserves to succeed in its aim of putting an end to all disputes surrounding the Ekiti elections of June 21, 2014. After all, its entire page is dedicated to a press statement from the US (United States) Department of State, which purportedly endorses the results of that election, congratulates the electoral organisation, the winner/loser duo, not forgetting the security forces – all for their laudable contributions. The release could not be more timely; what with the governor’s own exhortations on the virtues of credibility, avoidance of violence, and its special appeal to “ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE.”

    It is that last item in the advertisement to which I am especially drawn, in view of an audio recording that has now become the latest marvel of democratic exposes, internationally. For those who have nothing to hide, disrobing lies and forgeries and reinforcing truth is regarded as part and parcel of the obligations we owe democracy.

    The audio could well be one of such forgeries. We are daily inundated with allegations, evasions, distortions, image plundering and image laundering, all under the permissive canopy of electoral proceeding. Once in a while however, we encounter exposure of an exceptional dimension that appears to strike at the very root of democracy, questions the validity of an entire electoral system and even erodes confidence in the integrity of the state. Such an event need not be regarded as a repudiation of the formal mechanics put in place by an electioneering agency such as INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), but nonetheless extends the scope of its responsibilities, including its projection of looming hazards of future electoral exercises.

    This is why, in the absence of a constitutional court or its equivalent, one is left with no other course than to call on INEC to also take formal charge of the recorded incident of this alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of democracy. For those ‘who have nothing to hide’, it is a call that deserves unstinting support. They should not hesitate to assist in calling on the same U.S. expertise to assist us in exposing a forgery. We are speaking here of a development that implicates not only products, beneficiaries or would-be constitutional guardians of the electoral process – that is, an elected governor, a governorship aspirant, but also state agencies – the military, two serving ministers – that is, members of the executive arm of government, one of them in charge of the nation’s defence portfolio – and others.   In addition to the logical role of the police, the nation’s electoral commission should undertake an independent investigation and make its findings known to the nation. Is this perhaps something INEC can undertake while the nation waits out its suspended electoral sentence? It only requires repudiation – or validation – of the findings of an already advanced forensic enquiry.

    So also should the two anti-corruption agencies – the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission) – since material corruption is also implicit in the present instance.   At the fount of all electoral manipulation is the grim facilitator – money!  Here, for instance, is a lesson drawn from the travails of a former Inspector-General of Police in recent history.

    That scandal happened to coincide with a barely concluded electoral exercise, considered by some as a strong contestant for one of the most blatantly manipulated election in the nation’s history.  A number of bulging accounts had been traced to that Inspector-General of Police (IGP). During private discussions, I exhorted the then director of the EFCC to go beyond the sensational monetary finds and track each of them painstakingly back to source.  “If you succeed in that”, I urged Nuhu Ribadu (former chairman of the anti-graft agency), “you would have done more than merely expose institutional police corruption, you would have done inestimable service to the cause of democracy.

    “The IGP”, I insisted, “was a mere bag holder for electoral manipulators inhabiting the most rarefied levels of governance!”  I therefore pleaded with him not to stop at the prosecution and conviction of the sacrificial face – in effect, a scapegoat, albeit most willing – of that operation. This was equally my prayer to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) during an Abuja lecture at the time.

    Anyone who disputes a robust connection between material and political corruption should reflect on the mild slap on the wrist that the IGP received for charges of misappropriation of such staggering dimensions.  Now it is the turn of the Army as facilitators for the alleged political crime.  Allied to this elite criminal corps – again, as alleged – was a former Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee turned governorship candidate. The evidence resides in the recording of a conspiracy against free and fair elections, later reinforced by a televised interview with the whistleblower – a military intelligence officer. That recording has been heard by millions all over the world – governments, human rights organisations, election monitoring groups, business individuals, and even those merely seeking real-life variants on improbable Nollywood fare. The alleged crime is in global domain.

    Let no one attempt to facilitate the rampaging course of impunity by brushing this aside as just another electoral malpractice – no, in my layman estimation, this approaches criminal subversion and treason.  The accusation is blatant and the demand for rigorous investigation must remain unrelenting. The accounts of the inculpated General and others should be subjected to the same scrutiny as those of the earlier cited IGP. And so on, and so clamorous! Those who have nothing to fear can sleep easy.

    If the formal agencies fail, then citizens must learn to assert their right of access to truth. As is the practice in other societies, a citizens’ trial can be instituted, experts co-opted, and both accusers and accused invited to testify. Even the venue does not have to be internal, since witnesses may require protection. Democracy does not begin or end with the ballot box, nor is it confined to national boundaries. There is no assertion anywhere yet of a “Case Proven”, no rush to judgment, simply a craving – as urged in the said governor’s advertorial – to let “facts speak for themselves!”

  • Niger Delta ex-militants reject soldiers’ deployment for elections

    Niger Delta ex-militants reject soldiers’ deployment for elections

    Leaders of Niger-Delta Ex-militants have rejected any planned redeployment of soldiers for the elections.

    They have also declared that the March 28 and April 11 dates for the elections should remain “non-negotiable”.

    According to a statement, the ex-militants said: “We insist that elections must hold on March 28 and April 11 2015 as currently announced. We reject any further cancellation, postponement or rescheduling.

    “We inform that it is the failure to hold transparent, credible, free and fair elections on March 28 and April 11 2015 that may lead to chaos, insecurity and problems in the Niger Delta.”

    In the 10-point declaration issued yesterday, the ex-militants’ leaders said processes leading to the elections must be “credible, free and fair”.

    The statement was signed by 11 ex-militants, including General Boni (Burutu LGA), Smart Amola (Warri South-West), Francis Muturu (aka Gen. Aboy), Friday Edema (aka Ijagun 1), Alfred Aniretan (aka Field Marshal), and Sunday Amoma (aka Capone).

    Others are Gen. King Jerry, Gen Saturday Emmanuel, Gen Isie Ologbo, Commander Peter Asule (aka Gen Atseluwa, Warri-South), and Commander Mike Edesemi (aka Gen Blackman).

    The group insisted that INEC and its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega must be “genuinely” independent and allowed to conduct the elections without intimidations either from the federal government or the Nigeria Army.

    Dissociating themselves from pronouncements from some groups in the region that war would break out if any particular candidate loses, the group stated “We assure and promise that the Niger Delta will be peaceful and accept the result of transparent, credible, free, and fair elections that will occur on March 28 and April 11″.

    They condemned “statements or plans that convey the Niger Delta as being undemocratic or supporting one particular candidate exclusively”, noting that indigenes of the region could freely express their rights to associate with any party or candidate of their choice.

    Warning that deploying the army or intimidate/harrass indigenes of the region “prior to, during and after the elections” would be resisted and might lead to a breakdown of law and order”, the ex-militants insisted “We individually and collectively on behalf of our communities and people  solemnly sign this declaration and also put the country on notice that these demands are the only conditions for peace in the Niger Delta”.

  • Court to hear Makinde’s candidacy suit Mar 9

    Court to hear Makinde’s candidacy suit Mar 9

    A Federal High Court in Ibadan has adjourned till March 9 to hear a case challenging the candidacy of Seyi Makinde as the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Oyo State.

    The suit was filed by Olugbenga Bayode and Rasaq Adegboyega, who claimed to be SDP members.

    In the suit by their counsel, Adenle Adeloye, the plaintiffs alleged that Makinde was not the “proper” candidate to represent the SDP in the election because he was not part of the primary conducted last December 6.

    They further claimed that Aworinde Oluwafemi Samson emerged as the governorship candidate in the December 6 primary.

    At the proceedings yesterday, Makinde’s counsel Yaqub Fadare told the court that the defence had filed necessary documents asking the court to dismiss the suit.

    SDP’s counsel Idowu Oyeleke urged the court to strike out the case, saying the party’s defence team had filed notice of preliminary objection, written address, statement of defence and other necessary documents.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) counsel, Omoniyi Fayanju, told the court that the screening of all the candidates were done at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, saying he would connect with the Legal Department at the headquarters to obtain necessary documents.

  • When politicians go gaga

    When politicians go gaga

    IR: Nigerian politics and politicians are peculiar;  comparatively different from other westen democratic political processes. Their style remind of the award-winning play – Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again by Ola Rotimi, a comic swipe at ideological misfits and opportunists who strut over the ever-accommondating political landscape of contemporary Africa.

    Those who fail to learn from history are bound to perish in the pitfall of the past generations. Our politicians have shown that they have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing by their daily activities and behaviour.

    Professor Bolaji Akinyemi once alerted the nation that the way and manners the two political parties at the forefront of the political contest were going about the race for power is becoming frightening and that whichever of the two that may eventually win could cause violence in the land. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and other great world leaders intervened and caused a peace accord to be signed; little did we know that it was a mere paper work that would not stop violence in our polity. From Lagos, Kano, Gombe, Ekiti, to Rivers, it has been violence all the way. The latest took place in Okirika Local Government Area in River State, where the campaign rally of APC gubernatorial candidate was terminated with rain of bullets by unknown political thugs. A policeman was reportedly killed and 50 others injured despite the guarantee the party received from the Police Commisioner.

    The president has not condemned the attack at Okirika. Tension is on the rise daily, but are there no beautiful ones among the political groups that should call for time to heal the wounds, to bridge the chasms that divide the nation in order to build a better and new nation?

    The daily pebbles of insultive words at political opponents cannot win an election; it will only inflame the volatile political atmosphere. It is time to call Ayo Fayose, Femi Fani-Kayode and their likes to the banquet of love and peace. Never before have we descended to gutter levels as we have these days, when the very people aspiring for leadership cannot console broken hearted youths with words of hope. Instead of providing the youths with empowerment programmes as it is being done in Osun under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who within four years has gainfully employed and empowered over 60, 000 youths; a phenomenal scheme that has received World Bank and international admiration, some feel the best they could do for the jobless youths is to engage them as political thugs, armed them to maim and kill political opponents.

    Any government which lay claim to legitimacy is expected to ensure there is a measure of social welfare for its citizens; guarantee their security irrespective of social status and religious beliefs. It is just and right that people’s right to freely choose the type of leaders they want is guaranteed. That is the more reason, President Jonathan must allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) to perform its duties as electoral umpire.

    The military need not be told that their duty is to protect the nation from external attacks, while the internal security of the country lies with the police as provided for in the constitution. Leaders go, leaders come but the nation must continue to exist. We must prove to the world that we have come of age to conduct our affairs without any bloodshed. We must tell the all powerful AIG Joseph Mbu that in a democratic society, a suspect is presumed innocent untill the court says otherwise. Nigerians are saying no to shoot  at sight or “ kill 20 men that kill a single policeman”.

    •Yomi Obaditan,

    Osogbo, Osun State.

     

  • Visa restriction

    Visa restriction

    •International community should treat partisan military brass with extreme disdain

    It is odd that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, presumably a democratic government, could run the country ignominiously like a military dictatorship. Until the infamous announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, postponing the February elections, many would wager that President Jonathan’s administration is incapable of obtrusively influencing the electoral body.

    But that disingenuous interference, disguised as security challenges, has opened the eyes of Nigerians and the international community to the capacity of the presidency and their collaborators to cause harm to our democracy, unless they are checkmated.

    We consider it reassuring that the United States and her democratic allies are considering sanctions for any further infractions against an orderly election. Observably, while the final push for the postponement of the elections came from the security agencies, nobody is deceived that President Jonathan’s party precipitated the move. So, the fact that the announcement came from the INEC chief should not mitigate the culpability of the security chiefs and the presidency, for that unwarranted interference in the electoral process. We are happy that the international community understood that the National Security Adviser and the service chiefs merely used the security bogey, to act out the unpatriotic script of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    According to media reports, there are already plans for targeted sanctions on certain government and security officials should the presidential election now rescheduled for March 28, be postponed again. One of such sanctions, according to the report, will be visa restrictions, which the US Secretary of State had hinted on last month, when he made a shuttle visit to Lagos. We welcome the interest of other democracies, towards ensuring that the Federal Government is coerced, if need be, to organise a free, fair and transparent 2015 general elections. It is also appreciated that where there are infractions, those responsible for such intransigencies are singled out and punished, by the international community.

    To achieve the expectations of democratic Nigerians and the country’s international friends, we urge the international community, particularly the western democracies, to make it abundantly clear to the Federal Government that nothing short of transparent general elections would be acceptable. Indeed, should the federal authorities truncate or again undermine the elections, then, officials of state, from the presidency down, should be severely sanctioned. Of course the international community should have more effective ways to sanction anti-democratic offences, than the mere denial of visas.

    It is also pertinent to remind President Jonathan’s administration that Nigeria had worked this precarious path before, where government wantonly interfered with the election process, with devastating consequences for the country. But that was under a military aberration, the infamous Ibrahim Babangida regime, as against a democratic government. We recall the rigmaroles of the military President’s administration, to frustrate a transition to civilian government, which eventually culminated in the criminal annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections. Regrettably, just as in the present circumstance, the sitting military president was determined to ensure he became the chief beneficiary of that manoeuvre; but like all such misadventures, the entire thing ended in a fiasco.

    We hope that the present schemers of similar institutional double dealing will remember that monumental national tragedy, and the pains inflicted on ordinary Nigerians. If they were not around then, they should ask those who fought with all they had, to return Nigeria to a democratic part. Considering that many of them played no part in the struggle, they must be reminded that Nigerians are not ready for any form of autocratic government, by whatever name it may be called. So, those who seek to undermine our hard-earned democracy, must be ready for the consequences.

  • ‘PDP, Accord colluding with INEC’

    ‘PDP, Accord colluding with INEC’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has raised the alarm over the alleged plans by Accord, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disenfranchise eligible voters in some local governments, where the APC is most popular.

    In a statement in Ibadan yesterday by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, the party said the plan was part of a grand design by the Presidency to whittle down the increasing popularity of APC candidates.

    The statement reads:”We have been inundated with first hand reports of secret meetings between some agents of the PDP and electoral officers on the one hand as well as the leadership of  Accord Party and top INEC officials on the other hand.

    “At these clandestine meetings, agents of the PDP and Accord Party, who included high profile members, did brandish evidence of support from the Presidency to work out means to mitigate the support which most voters have demonstrated for the APC and its candidates so that it would not translate to a humiliating defeat for President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “The plan is designed to involve cloning some Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) belonging to innocent voters in some areas known to be populated by APC supporters and thus nullify their chances of casting their votes for General Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Abiola Ajimobi and other APC candidates.

    “Electoral officers in selected councils are being made to provide voters’ details in their registration data bank which some hired experts would clone for usage before normal voting on election days.

    But Accord, in a statement by the Director-General of the Rashidi Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Adeolu Adeleke,  said: “Our attention has been drawn to the allegation against our candidate, Rashidi Ladoja.

    “The Ladoja Campaign Organisation considered the allegation to be spurious, malicious .

    “I want to say it authoritatively and unequivocally that there was (and still) no working relationship between Ladoja and INEC as being alleged by APC.”

  • INEC clears air on alien cards in Ogun

    INEC clears air on alien cards in Ogun

    •CDHR protests non-release of PVCs to owners

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it is working to ensure that all registered voters in Ogun State get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) before the elections.

    On the 625,000 alien PVCs  in the state, INEC said only 21 of them were discovered to belong in Edo State, and have since been returned.

    The rest,the commission said, belong to students, who registered in 2010 and 2011.

    It said at the end of last week, there were 1,795,794 registered voters in the state and a total of 1,368,875 PVCs have been received by the state headquarters.

    Of the figure received, 795,962 have been distributed, showing 56.7 per cent distribution rate while 573,236 cards are yet to be collected by their owners across the 20 local governments.

    The commission’s Administrative Secretary,  Atiba Dickson, who represented the Residential Electoral Commission(REC), Timothy Ibitoye, said INEC was working to ensure that all registered voters get their PVCs before the elections.

    Dickson spoke yesterday when members of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) marched on the commission, demanding bulk release of the PVCs for registered voters in the state.

    CDHR accused the commission of deliberately hoarding the cards for ulterior motives.

    The group, led by the state chairman, Folarin Yinka, warned the commission against denying people the rights to vote by withholding their PVCs unnecessarily.

    Yinka queried the rational behind the almost 100 per cent success in the PVCs distribution in crisis-torn states such as Gombe, Borno, Adamawa, Nasarawa, among others, whereas a peaceful Ogun State has recorded a mere 40 per cent distribution by the same INEC.

    He urged the commission to embark upon speedy and bulk distribution of PVCs to registered voters.

    Dickson assured that by Saturday, most people would have gotten their cards, adding that those yet to collect theirs would be listed to enable them collect them.

    “You know there are many tertiary institutions in this state. Most of the students who registered then have graduated and left Ogun.

    “Some of these PVCs we are talking about also belong to security personnel, who have been transferred from the state.”

    According to Dickson, since the owners are presumably no longer in the state, the cards would remain uncollected as though they were of fictitious and alien origin.

  • Shame, NLC, shame

    SIR: ‘’Against popular opinion and allegations of a sinister motive, INEC has been made to postpone the general elections. We would want to register our disappointment about this development…any further attempt to frustrate the process of the general elections by whatever means, a postponement or otherwise, shall be resisted.’’ –Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on February 9, condemning the postponement of Nigeria’s general elections.

    Fate has an uncanny way of bringing us face to face with the bitter truths concerning the lies and deceits we surreptitiously, deliberately design and peddle as gospel truths which at once cast us in the image of saints and demonize others. The Greeks called it nemesis. For their presumption and holier than thou posturing, which the Greeks called hubris, so eloquently captured in the above quotation about the postponed elections, the NLC was sufficiently and well shamed and exposed only three days later when it ironically, woefully, failed to conduct its own general elections as they ended midway in utter pandemonium!

    For the records, the NLC’s 11th delegates’ conference was convened in order to hold elections into executive positions on Thursday, February 12. But this was not to be as the elections suddenly ended in chaos. The depressing pictures of scattered ballot boxes, torn ballot papers and upturned and broken tables and chairs that showcased the commotion that characterized the botched elections is a perfect replay of the typical narrative and scenario that have become a worrying, recurring decimal in Nigeria’s wider political landscape, elections especially.

    We have become so used to talking about and castigating the Nigerian political elite of corruption and all of its various ugly derivatives that we forget that, one way or the other, we ourselves have become willing accomplices in these devious crimes or are, worst of all (as we have seen in the case of the NLC), even more culpable culprits because we have bred and raised our own versions of this prevailing monstrosity. But what makes it more reprehensible is the fact that we secretly perpetrate this corruption and hide under the veneer of the privilege, a sense of immunity, integrity and respect our being unionists and social critics confer on us. We shamelessly perpetrate even more grievous sins than those for which we take delight and relish in maliciously accusing and castigating others so as to appear as saints.

    Nigeria is slowly inching towards the precipice because those ferocious flames of corruption are being further fanned by hypocrisy and this cynical holier than thou attitude. Generally speaking, institutions in Nigeria are still weak and at best still slowly evolving. And the price of this is this pervasive weakness in character and a blurred perception of what is wrong and right in both the ruling elite and the citizenry as a whole. And the leadership of labour is by all intents and purposes part and parcel of this ruling elite, despite the illusion of their being self-styled comrades.

    • Chris Gyang,

    Jos, Plateau State

  • INEC is playing with our future

    SIR: We are compelled to appeal to Professor Attahiru Jega the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, through your national newspaper, to please prevail on the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ogun State to please make available the Permanent Voter Cards of the recently registered voters so as to enable them exercise their franchise in during the general elections Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state.

    It is appalling that after the commission had voided the registration of nearly 60 percent of the voters that registered in 2011, the commission has not deemed it fit to provide many eligible voters with the PVC. The action portends serious danger to the future of our people in this area of the state as any failure in releasing the card will render us ineligible.

    It is equally sad that INEC has not commenced any voter’s education exercise hence we are in the woods election-wise whenever the exercise commence. It worrisome that less than 50 percent of registered voters have collected their PVC in Ogun State while majority continue to flood INEC offices within the local government offices on daily basis without any positive sign from the commission.

    We are of the firm belief that should the electoral commission continue to foot drag on the issues raised, it might be dancing to the drum beat of a political party or playing an already agreed game-plan and crafted by a faceless group, government or  some jittery candidates.

    It is in view of this that we are now appealing to the chairman of INEC, human rights groups, the government and all good people of Nigeria that they should not fold their arms and allow the electoral commission to systematically disenfranchise us in the name of non-availability of Permanent Voters Card.

    It is our right to vote and having taken the pains to register in spite of all odds we faced during the registration exercise, we must be allowed to vote.

     

    • Chief Femi Oni

    Sango Otta, Ogun State.