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Tag: Inec

  • De –registration:  Fresh Party threatens to return to court

    De –registration:  Fresh Party threatens to return to court

    Fresh Democratic Party (FDP), one of the 28 political parties de-registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has threatened to return to court to force the body obey a ruling on the issue.

    The party accused INEC of deliberately ignoring the court judgment, which had overruled the de-registration  of the party.

    Justice G.O Kolawole of the Federal High Court in his ruling on 29th July, 2013 declared the decision of the electoral body invalid and set it aside on the ground that no government agency is granted that power.

    The national legal secretary of the party, Kola Dopamu, and the party’s legal representative, including Lagos lawyer Fred Agbaje told reporters in Abuja the legal team is currently brainstorming on the next move.

    Dopamu described INEC’s claim of the party not having structures in at least 24 states as stipulated in the 1999 constitution as mere “falsehoods.”

    Although the party does not have any member in the National Assembly and the 36 Houses of Assembly, as well as local government area councils, it boasts that it is solidly on ground in 32 states.

    Dopamu said: “We have not abandoned our legal process. It is a strategy. If we go back to court, they will say the matter is still in court and we will not be able to do anything.

    “If you listen to the text of my message, INEC has not appealed the judgment. In terms of our memberships, it is one of the lies being peddled by INEC.

    “We have structures. As we talk to you, we have offices in not less than 32 states. INEC has this information. They have been to some of our offices in some states.”

    He added: “Be rest assured that we will follow a civil process in seeking a redress for the injustice.

    “We will unfold our strategy with time. The legal team is working behind doors. We will let you know in due course.”

    Agbaje said: “For any political party to function under the constitution, it must be spread across the federation.

    “For INEC to register you, they have to verify it. INEC was a party to the case we filed in the court.”

    A former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, alleged INEC’s de-registration of 28 political parties is targeted at something, which he failed to name.

    “INEC’s action is targeted at a particular objective by those who control them. The case of Fresh Democratic Party is a clear example.

    “It has been one year since the court gave a judgment that INEC should re-instate the  party, yet they have disobeyed that order.”

     

  • Funding INEC

    Funding INEC

    The Federal Government has no excuse for underfunding the electoral commission barely seven months to elections

    The warning by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters that the capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could be compromised by poor funding deserves the serious attention of the Federal Government, the civil society and the general public.

    The committee’s chairman, Mr. Jerry Manwe, said that the committee found out that the electoral body would require N120 billion to conduct the 2015 elections, whereas all that has been made available to it is N45 billion. The huge difference, he explained, could precipitate logistics crisis if not resolved early enough.

    Manwe echoed the fears expressed by the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, in his earlier interface with the National Assembly. We find the alarm worrisome given the fact that the next general elections, including the presidential, governorship and legislative at federal and state levels are due in another seven months. The electoral commission ought to have the fund now to enable it prepare for the polls.

    Although the N120 billion appears huge, all the commission is required to do is convince the legislature that due diligence has been followed in its computation. It is curious that the House is crying out now after the Appropriation Bill had been passed. Mr. Manwe is calling for a supplementary bill before it is too late. While at this stage there appears to be no alternative, we are surprised that the House that had been interfacing with the commission did not deem it necessary to call the attention of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office to the potential landmine during the defence of the budget by government agencies.

    It appears that the financial independence for INEC that Nigerians had fought for and won is being eroded so soon after the amendment to the Electoral Act in 2010.

    The ghosts of the heavily compromised 2007 elections are still haunting the process. Also, owing to late preparations, the first elections conducted in 2011 had to be aborted mid-stream. A repeat of these faux pas would be unacceptable in 2015. The electoral commission has been handed a mandate to improve on the recent Ekiti State governorship election; anything less would be unacceptable to Nigerians who are too eager to prove to the international community that they are capable of designing and conducting flawless elections.

    During the budget preparation, the House Committee on Police Affairs, too, had pointed out that poor funding of the police could hinder adequate security arrangement for the elections. The committee said, from the estimates submitted by the executive in a year leading to general elections, the budgetary provision for the police had decreased by more than N1 billion. It said this could precipitate a strike action when the men in uniform would be required to protect the integrity of the balloting process.

    We find it difficult to accept that the Federal Government needs prodding to appreciate these booby traps. While we acknowledge that we live in difficult times, when security challenges occasioned by the insurgency in the north east is causing so much pain and making a huge demand on scarce resources, it must be noted that deepening democracy is one of the most serious challenges of the moment. It would take sustenance of democracy to guarantee professionalism of the armed forces and safeguard the nation’s territorial integrity.

    The recent Ekiti election has also brought to the fore the need to strictly adhere to the constitutional provision investing in INEC the power to “organise, undertake and supervise all elections to the offices of the President, Vice President, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a state, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the Federation.”

    We hold that this provision presupposes that INEC shall be in charge of all arrangements, including security, associated with the conduct of elections. The commission has a security department that ought to liaise with all the security agencies involved in deploying men for the elections. It ought to make request for the number of men required from each of the agencies. A situation where each security outfit decides the number and calibre of men deployed without the input and control of INEC is indefensible and unconstitutional. It was such a situation that led to the wanton abuse of power and privileges by the armed forces personnel deployed for electoral duty in Ekiti on June 21. The responsibility of the Inspector-General of Police and service chiefs should be limited to designating a very senior officer to work with the security department of the electoral body. This is the system that has served the electoral system in India so well.

    All that Nigerians want is the delivery of free, fair and credible elections that accord to international standards and show that progress has been made in the democratic march. This cannot be guaranteed in a situation where the electoral umpire is underfunded.

  • Jega: Osun’s election ’ll be better than Ekiti’s

    Jega: Osun’s election ’ll be better than Ekiti’s

    THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is working hard to ensure that the August 9 Osun State governorship election is more transparent, free and fair.

    Its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said no effort would be spared to make the election more credible than the June 21 Ekiti State poll, which received wide acclaims as the best so far by the commission.

    The INEC chairman, according to his Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Robert Idowu, spoke yesterday when the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China, Gu Xiaojie, visited him.

    He said the commission had, since 2010 when it came on board, been improving on the electoral process “to make it more participatory and ensure that it is more transparent.

    According to him, the commission is also committed in ensuring that “elections are conducted consistent with international best standards and in accordance” with Nigeria’s electoral laws.

    He added: “Since 2011, we have been doing our best to keep on improving the integrity and transparency of the electoral process. We have cleaned up the Register of Voters, and we have been doing our best to address the challenge of logistics of deployment, which has been a major obstacle to our conduct of good elections.

    “I am pleased to say there has been progressive improvement in the series of governorship elections that we have conducted since 2011, culminating in the Ekiti election that we conducted two weeks ago, and which has been generally acknowledged as perhaps the best election that we have conducted so far. On the 9th of August, we have another election in Osun State and we are doing everything possible to ensure that the Osun election is better than Ekiti.”

    Jega restated INEC readiness to conduct the 2015 general election in all states of the federation, despite security threats in some areas.

    He said: “We know that both nationally and internationally, there are concerns about the 2015 general election, partly because of the challenges of security in some states. On our part, we have been doing our best to ensure that we are able to conduct elections in those areas; and we have been working very closely with security agencies to ensure that there is adequate security for the conduct of election in those states.”

    The commission, he added, has improved its engagement with stakeholders, including political parties, security agencies and civil society organisations, among others, to deepen the political process.

    “We have periodic meetings with these stakeholders, where we explain what we are doing and we receive suggestions for improvement; and we take these suggestions on board as we continue to improve the process,” he said.

    The INEC Chairman also acknowledged the support of the international community for Nigeria’s electoral process.

    “Our development partners and friends have been very helpful. They have encouraged us and shown understanding, and that also has gone a long way to contribute to our continuous improvement of the electoral process.”

    Chinese envoy, in his remarks, said there is much that his country and Nigeria could mutually learn from each other’s electoral experience.

    He added that Nigeria, being an important country in Africa, global attention is on the country as it prepares to conduct the 2015 general election.

     

  • Process leading to Ekiti election was flawed, says U.S. don

    Process leading to Ekiti election was flawed, says U.S. don

    •Amaechi chides Nigerians for tolerating corrupt leadership

    It was another opportunity yesterday to examine the polity, with a United States don leading the way in Lagos.

    Prof. Larry Diamond, directorat the Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, delivered a thought-provoking verdict —flawless voting alone is no parameter for a credible election.

    He was, apparently, faulting the process that led to the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State, saying it does not inspire confidence about the seriousness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise free and fair elections in 2015.

    Prof. Diamond, who was delivering the inaugural edition of the Freedom House Democracy Lecture Series at the Muson Centre on Lagos Island, said: “You cannot have the police and the military blocking the supporters (not to mention fellow governors) of one party from moving about a state and campaigning, and call that a fully free and fair election.”

    He said democratic elections require a level-playing field and that every step in the electoral process must be monitored to ensure transparency.

    The former Fulbright scholar at the Bayero University, Kano, was worried about the future of constitutional government in the country, like most Nigerians.

    In his view, Nigeria’s problems are products of deficient institutions and a culture that has grown up around them.  He added, however, that people make institutions and that can still change them. “There is a chronic tendency in Nigeria and abroad to see the country’s prospect as nearly hopeless. But Nigeria is not condemned to suffer endemic corruption, waste, ineptitude, and insecurity,” Diamond added.

    He said: “Think of how different Nigeria’s modern history would have been if it could simply have held free and fair elections. Compare Nigeria for a moment with another former British colony that is also a complex agglomeration of peoples, cultures, and languages: India.

    “India has a huge number of problems, and it has seen a disturbing acceleration of corruption over the last decade.  There is no question that corruption and inefficiency have retarded economic growth and human development in India.  But India has a serious state, and it has constructed a formidably honest and efficient apparatus for administering elections.”

    Diamond said at this time of growing disaffection with the performance of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, it is important that all Nigerians—even young Nigerians who have no memory of those days of dread and depravity—appreciate this lesson of their own history, and that of other countries. He said however troubled the national situation may become, however scandalous or inept the performance of elected government may be, civilian rule remains the best option for the country.

    To him, the core problem of Nigeria today is the chronic deficit of honest and effective governance.

    “We have learned in Nigeria, and in Pakistan, and in Thailand, and in so many other countries around the world:  there is no military shortcut to governance reform.  The challenge lies with the civilian institutions and actors of democracy:  parties, politicians, legislators, judges, civil servants, and civil society,” he stressed.

    Boko Haram, he said, represents only one symptom of the problem, and it is not an unfamiliar one in Nigeria because during the late 1970s and early 1980s another violent religious movement, led by Maitatsine, wrought havoc on the North, leading to thousands of deaths.

    Diamond thanked former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the honour of being invited to deliver the inaugural lecture and for his record of developmental performance during his eight years as Governor of Lagos State. He said Tinubu’s stewardship as governor was significant because the country has largely squandered staggering natural resource wealth and human potential for more than half a century of independence.

    In his opening remarks, Tinubu said Nigerians do not understand enough about democratic governance and practice.

    He added: “What we practise often is not democracy. How this nation is governed is a hybrid process where democracy is often the junior partner and minority attribute. As such the system of governance we practise has not yielded the desired results – the dividends of democracy have been painfully elusive.”

    Tinubu lamented the fact that the Federal Government had arbitrarily reduced the revenues flowing to states in the opposition party, in order to punish them. “In effect, the Federal Government has imposed economic sanctions simply because some political leaders have the temerity to belong to another party. What an abuse of power,” he added.

    Butressing Diamond’s point about the Ekiti election, APC National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed said rigging started long before the election day. “We are going to court to challenge primarily the constitutional infractions; not for Ekiti, but for future elections,” he noted, adding that it is an abuse of power and abuse of institutions.

    Diamond, who is a consultant to many international organisations and a writer, spoke on the theme, “Nigeria’s Governance Predicament: Poverty, Terrorism and Democracy”. His latest book, “The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World”, explores the sources of global democratic progress and stresses the prospects for future democratic expansion.

    He noted that though he had been asked to speak about the challenge posed to democracy by poverty and terrorism in Nigeria, the core problem in the country is not poverty.  “Neither is it one of terrorism. These are manifestations of a deeper and more diffuse malignancy: bad governance.  Governance that is not addressing the central policy challenges of the country,” he added.

    Nigeria’s huge oil reserves, he noted, has largely been a curse, because it distorted the structure of production and discouraged agriculture.  “Corruption booms, because the money is there for the taking— unimaginable amounts of it — and it is not really anyone’s money anyway, it is just spewing up from the ground,” he added.  It is a different ballgame, he said, when compared to countries like India, which relied primarily on taxes.

    The lecture was well attended by politicians, particularly members of the APC. They include: Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi; Deputy National Chairman Chief Segun Oni; Senators Gbenga Ashafa, Oluremi Tinubu, Olorunimbe Mamora; and Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

    Others include Deputy Governor of Oyo State Moses Adeyemo; Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assemby Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who was accompanied by 24 members of the Assembly; chairman of Kano APC, Hon. Umar Haruna and Mrs. Kemi Nelson. Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, among others was there.

  • Time for INEC to put its acts together

    There is no end in sight that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC will ever change its previous grandstanding that has brought the election body into disrepute. The article published by The Nation recently, written by Kayode Robert Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega may have put all the possibility of a contrite INEC to rest.

    The INEC chieftain, in his response to The Nation’s earlier editorial on the necessity of the usage of e-card reader in both Ekiti and Osun governorship elections strove valiantly to gain balance and sense perspective, presenting tantalising fables targeted at hypnotising unsuspecting voters that their votes will count.

    INEC under Prof Jega has proved utterly feckless and the electoral body itself disappointed the hopes of those who believe it will bring about ballot revolution. There is no doubt that lack of access to authenticated voters’ card impinges the civic right of the people. It creates the feelings of inequality, of social exclusion felt by majority of Nigerians who see themselves as nominally citizens.

    INEC’s refusal to deploy electronic card readers in the Ekiti and Osun is said to be basedon the lesson it said it learned from the Ghana’s election: “The wisdom of this incremental procedure should be obvious from lessons learnt from other countries; for instance, the 2012 general election in Ghana where challenges that arose from simultaneous introduction of voter smart cards and card readers compelled the country to shift voting in some areas to the following day before the election could be concluded. Experiences are meant to be learnt from, and one way of learning from experience is to redesign approaches towards the same objective.”

    While it is true that Ghana’s election did spill over the second day on account of double usage of both e-card readers and PVC, it was because Ghana’s Electoral Commission insisted that every single vote must count.

    One would have expected that Idowu would provide answer to the question raised in The Nation’s editorial: “how did unscrupulous persons get to register more than once?” His response is quite instructive: “They did so by going to different polling units in different geographical locations to register, for whatever political gains they had hoped to make; because no one could register twice on the same Direct Data Capture (DDC) machine given the software loaded on the machines by INEC. But the Commission has been able to check this abuse with the use of AFIS at the progressive levels of data consolidation and de-duplication. The Commission has the records of persons who engaged in the malfeasance and will prosecute as many as is possible within its limited capacity under the subsisting legal framework”, he said.

    That is part of the lies INEC has been wafting contemptuously on the faces of Nigerians as if we are still living in the Stone Age. The Commission can easily detect multiple registrants if the so-called Direct Data Capture, DDC is scientifically synchronised as we have it in the banking industry or any social media portals where double entries of the same names are rejected or revealed in whatever location one finds him/herself.  This shouldn’t be rock science for INEC owing to the huge allocation the commission has received from the treasury.

    Idowu made further caricature of the commission when he wrote: “For avoidance of doubt, cases of multiple registrations have been eliminated from the register, with only one instance retained for the culprits so that they are not completely denied the opportunity to vote. But they are ripe candidates for prosecution; and they would have only themselves to blame if they show up at polling units where the duplicates have been eliminated, because they will not find their names in those polling units. The painstaking processing of the registration data by INEC is what assures the integrity of the current National Register of Voters and makes it among the best that could be found anywhere on the African continent”.

    The question is, why wait for vote manipulators to appear at polling units on election day before they are apprehended, given the chaotic scenes such occurrence have created in the past? This strategy gives room for possible disruption of otherwise peaceful polling units when notorious electoral robbers storm such area with the intention to criminally vote multiple times only to find that their names were not on the voters’ list. It is then a case of the “thief calling the farm owner a thief”.

    To further demonstrate the ignorance of the commission, Idowu asserted that multiple registrations that had not been eliminated as at the time the 2011 elections were conducted did not necessarily translate to multiple voting, given the Re-modified Open Ballot System (REMOBS) procedure that was adopted for the elections. If you had to queue up in one particular polling unit at a particular time simultaneously with every other voter across the country, you could not have gone around to other polling units and profit from your malfeasance even if you registered more than once.”

    Any fourth grader would acknowledge that we are in for serious crisis if INEC’s thought process, as exhibited by Idowu, is all we can get. It shows that the commission is unaware that more than three or four polling units are concentrated in one polling centre. Aside that, INEC is not also conscious of communities where polling units open for voting between the hours of eight in the morning and close at 4pm and polling officials had to practically wait for more voters to show up and vote. INEC is not likely to know that their officials share the remaining ballot papers to polling agents of various political parties – this is where manipulations occur – to tally with the numbers of registrants in the units and wards levels.

    Nigerians are not unmindful of the fact that political institutions evolve, often very slowly and painfully, over time, as human society strives to organise themselves to master their communities. We are obeying animals by nature; born to conform to the social orders we see around us, and entrench those rules with often transcendent meaning and value. Once the environment changes and new challenges arise, there is usually a disjunction between existing institutions and the immediate needs. But these institutions are negatively supported by legions of entrenched stakeholders who oppose any fundamental change.

    Francis Fukuyama pointed out the foreboding omen in his all time The Origins of Political Order: from Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, “that political decay takes root when political systems fail to adjust to changing circumstances while pretentiously resorting to a host of short-terms fixes that erode and eventually corrupt the entire institution.”

    As far as I am concerned, there is in fact a curious blindness to the importance of electoral institution-building that has dampened justice governance in Nigeria.

    Yes, impulses, vigorous native intelligence, the spontaneous wisdom of INEC are important components of a working democracy, but none can ultimately replace the functions of a strong, reformed institution. There has to be a broad recognition that institutions matter and that poor countries are poor not because they lack resources, but because they lack effective political institutions.

    The long sedated Aso Rock tenant will not be obligated about the “unwarranted” need to transform INEC, since many an authoritarian government had no interest in reforming democratic institutions that would dilute or throw them out of power. But the danger in it is that INEC situation may continue to grow worse over time and will someday give room to powerful force that will knock the system off its current dysfunctional institutional equilibrium.

    • Ikhide wrote in from Lagos.
  • Crisis: INEC opposes PDP’s suit to force it to recognize Oyinlola’s successor

    Crisis: INEC opposes PDP’s suit to force it to recognize Oyinlola’s successor

    The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC) has raised preliminary objection to a matter before the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking it to recognise and work with Prof. Wale Oladipo as the National Secretary of the PDP until 2016.

    The electoral agency is also opposed to a request from the court by some PDP leaders to delete Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s name from its records as the National Secretary of the party.

    It said it would only honour a valid court order on who should be recognised as the National Secretary of the party instead of PDP forcing it to recognize anyone.

    The commission said it had conveyed its decision to the PDP at a recent meeting on who should be recognised as the National Secretary .

    It queried the basis for the suit by some PDP leaders.

    The matter was filed by some leaders of the PDP in the Southwest to stop Oyinlola from returning to office.

    The plaintiffs in the suit are Chief Adebayo Dayo; Alhaji Olayinka Taiwo; Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa; Chief Ebenezer Alabi; Dr. Tope Aluko; and Chief Taiwo Kuye.

    The electoral commission however said the “subject matter bothers on intra-party dispute which the court does not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate upon.”

    In a 12-paragrapoh affidavit deposed to by its Legal Officer, Vilba Kintai on June 16,  INEC said it should be left out of internal dispute of PDP.

    The affidavit reads: “That the statutory duty of the 1st defendant (INEC) is to monitor and keep records of the activities of political parties in Nigeria and ensuring their compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

    “That the subject matter of the plaintiffs’ suit bothers on internal dispute within the 2nd defendant over the appointment of a National Officer (Secretary) of the 2nd defendant.

    “That the statutory responsibility of INEC (1st Defendant) does not include settlement or resolution of internal squabbles or leadership tussles within a political party.

    “That it is the duty of PDP (2nd defendant) to appoint its national officers and INEC only keeps records of same.

    “That it is not the responsibility of INEC to pick or choose who to recognize as national Officer of a political party.

    “That INEC has been served with several suits and court processes with respect to the issue of National Secretary of PDP.

    “At a recent meeting between INEC and PDP, the electoral commission advised PDP to forward to it any court order declaring anyone as its National Secretary.”

    The defendants are the Independent National Electoral Commission (1st defendant); the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Oyinlola.

    They raised two issues for determination. These are:

    Whether by the combined effect of Section 223 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended) and Section 86 of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended), the 1st defendant is not obliged to accord recognition to Oladipo, who was nominated by the Southwest Caretaker Committee of the PDP at the Special Extra-Ordinary Congress of the South-West zone held on the 4th of January 2014 to fill the vacancy in the position of National Secretary of the party occurring by reason of the suspension and subsequent expulsion of Oyinlola, the erstwhile National Secretary, from the party sometime in November 2013.

    If the answer to question one is in the affirmative, then whether the first defendant is not obliged to amend its records in relation to the PDP (the 2nd defendant herein) to reflect the name of Prof. Wale Oladipo as the National Secretary of the party.

    The plaintiffs sought the following reliefs:

    “A declaration that by the combined effect of Section 223 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria1999(as amended) and Section 86 of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended), the 1st defendant is  obliged to accord recognition to Prof. Wale Oladipo who was nominated by the South-West Caretaker Committee of the PDP at the Special Extra-Ordinary Congress of the South-West zone held on the 4th of January 2014 to fill the vacancy in the position of National Secretary of the party occurring by reason of the decamping, suspension and subsequent expulsion of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the erstwhile National Secretary, from the party sometime in November 2013.

    “An order directing the 2nd defendant to ratify the appointment of Prof. Wale Oladipo as the National Secretary of the 2nd defendant within seven days of the judgment of this court

    “An order directing the 1st defendant to recognize and deal only with Prof. Wale Oladipo as the National Secretary of the PDP until 2016 when a new National Convention of the PDP may be convened to elect a successor to Prof. Wale Oladipo for the office of National Secretary.

    “An order restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants(INEC and PDP) from dealing with or according any recognition whatsoever to any person(s) as the National Secretary of PDP except Prof. Wale Oladipo until 2016 when a fresh National Convention could be held for the purpose of electing a new National Secretary for the PDP.

     

     

  • Sweeping of campaign venue provocative – Mu’azu

    Sweeping of campaign venue provocative – Mu’azu

    The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ahmadu Mu’azu, has described the sweeping of the Ekiti stadium by the All Progressives Congress (APC) after last Saturday’s campaign by the PDP as provocative.

    The police and PDP supporters had attacked APC supporters in Ado Ekiti during which Governor Kayode Fayemi was physically manhandled by the police.

    An APC member was allegedly killed by the police and PDP thugs during the encounter.

    Fayemi had described the encounter as an assassination attempt on him and had personally lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.

    But Mu’azu, who spoke at the All Party Summit in Abuja on Thursday, described the APC supporters’ action as provocative, wondering why “men should be carrying brooms.”

    He said: “I wonder why the APC would use brooms to sweep off our footprints each time our party goes to campaign in states under their control.

    “It was equally wrong for the APC to go to the stadium in Ekiti State immediately after our rally in the state to sweep off our feet. I was worried about such conduct and I don’t know when men started carrying brooms.”

    The PDP chairman also alleged that the “Bring Back Our Girls” protests were being sponsored by the opposition, saying the ruling party had since dismissed the protest as an affront against the government.

    “Initially, I thought the “Bring Back Our Girls” protests were well intentioned. That was why I asked my Chief of Staff, the former FCT Minister, to represent us and for two days, he was there.

    “Little did I know it was opposition protests against the Federal Government. But I want to remind us that the war against the abduction of the girls should not be politicised.

    He charged participants at the summit to take a critical view of the security challenges facing the country and act with one voice in bringing the problem to an end.

    Former military head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who chaired discussions at the summit, commended the political class for playing critical role in the successful transition from military to civil rule, which he superintended in 1999.

    Abdulsalami cautioned the political class against blame game over the challenges of terrorism and insurgency in the country.

     

  • ‘PDP plans telecoms cut, mass attack on APC’

    ‘PDP plans telecoms cut, mass attack on APC’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has uncovered alleged plan by the national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to breach telecommunication transmission networks in Ekiti State.

    The plan, APC claimed in a statement yesterday, is aimed at disrupting communication flow among poll monitors and members of staff of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    According to the party, this would also hamper communication among APC members by disallowing them from responding to distress calls in the trouble spots where PDP planned to rig elections and attack members.

    The statement by State Interim Chairman of APC, Chief Jide Awe, also said PDP planned “to begin unleashing mayhem in the state, killing APC members to be clad in PDP colours and then blame the act on APC.”

    It added that the plan was to paint APC members black before Nigerians, “thus necessitating extraordinary security measures by the Federal Government that will put fears in the minds of APC members after their leaders would have been arrested for murder.”

    Awe said aside planning to disrupt communication in the major telecommunication networks, two governorship candidates of PDP met and perfected “plans to start the orgy of violence, leading to the killings of APC members, covering the corpses in PDP colours and blaming it on APC leaders” with a view to arrest them for murder.

    This, APC said, would scare leaders and members of the party away from the streets on the day of election.

    The statement also reads: “We are aware of a meeting held at Spotless Hotel in Ado-Ekiti where PDP members received instruction to hit the town to unleash mayhem. They are to target APC members for attacks in their meetings and where the population of members is thick. They were assured of police protection in their violent attacks.

    “We are not surprised at the desperation of PDP. We have expected it. PDP knows it cannot win any election without violence.

    “They are planning to start killing our members and drape their bodies in PDP colours to appear as if APC is responsible for the killings. This will cause anger among the unsuspecting Nigerians against APC.

    “We had earlier alerted Nigerians on the plots by PDP to orchestrate violence in the state to create apathy among voters on the election day. We also called the attention of Nigerians to the cloning of voter’s cards by PDP to be illegally used by mercenaries to rig election. With PDP working in cahoots with the police, APC members will now be psychologically worn out while PDP members armed with the cloned cards would storm polling centres to illegally vote for their candidate,” the party said.

    The APC called world’s attention to the fact that Nigerians stood with President Goodluck Jonathan when he was disallowed by the enemies of democracy to be sworn in and recognised as the substantive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Democratic expression by Nigerians won him that battle and today he is savouring the benefits of democratic principle. He should remember the past and act as a statesman.

    “We therefore call the attention of Nigerians to these devilish plans by PDP leaders in their desperation to manipulate the poll in favour of their candidate. We also call on the international community, poll observers, lovers of democracy and people of conscience around the globe to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to allow democracy work in Nigeria”, the statement said.

  • Rivers PDP crisis: Court orders INEC to recognise Obuah exco

    Rivers PDP crisis: Court orders INEC to recognise Obuah exco

    Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the executive committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State led by Felix Obuah.

    The Obuah-led exco is believed to be loyal to the supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike.

    Justice Chukwu also barred the PDP and INEC from accepting candidates for elections from any other group other than those produced by the Obuah group.

    The judge also restrained the PDP National Secretariat  from holding or conducting any congress for the purpose of selecting or recognising new leaders, until the expiration of the four-year tenure of the Obuah group.

    Justice Chukwu equally restrained INEC or any of its officers from monitoring or supervising any congress in Rivers State and from accepting list of candidates for elections except those provided by the current party leadership in the state.

    The suit was filed by the Chairman, PDP Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Chukwuemeka Aaron. It had INEC, PDP and Obuah as defendants.

    The plaintiff asked the court to enforce the judgment of the Abuja High Court of April 13, last year, which upheld the congress that produced Obuah as the PDP Chairman.

    Justice Chukwu held that the Abuja High Court verdict delivered by Justice Ishaq Bello subsisted and must be obeyed by all parties in the suit, unless it was set aside by a higher court.

    The judge upheld that argument by plaintiff’s lawyer Prof Tony Ijohor (SAN) that the Abuja High Court judgment was binding since there was no order of stay of its execution by any court of competent record.

    The judge earlier dismissed five applications brought by some PDP members in the state seeking to be joined in the suit.

    The judge dismissed the motions for lacking in merit and for constituting gross abuse of court processes since the applicants failed to show how the outcome of the plaintiff suit would affect them.

     

  • 2015: Jega blames Presidency, National Assembly for paucity of funds

    2015: Jega blames Presidency, National Assembly for paucity of funds

    THE Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said the commission is doing its best to avoid the mistakes of the past in preparing for the 2015 elections.

    He said the elections may be jeopardised by paucity of funds because of the style the Presidency was using to fund the commission and the lack of sufficient appropriation from the National Assembly.

    The INEC chairman spoke in Abuja at a two-day National Dialogue/stakeholders’ forum on Transparent, Credible, Free and Fair 2015 elections with the INEC, media, civil society groups, political party chairmen, political analysts and the public.

    The forum was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Reform of Government  Institutions, headed by Matthew Omegara.

    In a presentation, titled: 2015 Elections In Nigeria: Preparations and Challenges, Jega said the challenges ahead of the 2015 elections include “funding, insecurity, attitude of the political class,” and an “apathetic and inactive citizenry”.

    Others, he said, are “delay in amendment to the legal framework, completion of the review of electoral constituencies and polling units and prosecution of election offenders”.

    He added:  “In 2012 and 2013, the funding declined. As I speak with you, there is funding gaps to do the 2015 elections. But I know Mr President and National Assembly are doing their very best to address the funding gaps. There is appropriation challenge. Ideally, when we say INEC is independent, we should do everything possible to make it really independent.”

    The INEC chairman said there is need for adequate budgetary allocation that would enable the commission to perform its statutory responsibilities without constraint.

    Jega also complained about inadequate staffing and situating INEC’s state offices on local government premises.

     

     

    He said: “We were given money in the first and second years to build but the funding seized. In all the countries, a lot of electoral requirements are treated expeditiously. Electoral funding should not be politicized, as everybody is talking about the money not what is being done.”

     

    Jega said the Commission is trying its best to ensure that the 2015 election is better than that of 2011.

     

    But Minority Whip of the House, Hon. Samson Osagie, took Jega up on the funding issue saying the National Assembly made supplementary appropriation for INEC prior to 2011 elections.

     

    He said: “INEC is critical to the sustenance of democracy, and NASS has taken cognizance of the fact that INEC needs funds. Is it lack of appropriation or releases that is the problem?”

     

    Jega said that the envelop system is a problem as well as the fact that INEC needs more funds.

     

    Osagie replied that if INEC is being tied to an envelop system, then the problem is not from the NASS but the Presidency.

     

    The Speaker of theHouse of Representatives, Hon, Aminu Tambuwal who was represented by the Minority Whip, Hon. Samson Osagie, in his speech noted that some of the challenges that may confront INEC in ensuring a free, fair, credible and transparent 2915 general elections include “ the issue of transparency in the conduct of election s without fear or favour by not succumbing to any external influence or dictatorship, security of election results at all levels, returning and declaring the winners by respecting the choice of the people, issues of electronic rigging, snatching of ballot ones and papers, timely disposal of election cases etc.”