•APGA faction to INEC: don’t recognise Umeh
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, has advised Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and officials to be more vigilant and cautious as the country prepares for next year’s general elections.
This information is contained in the INEC daily bulletin issued by the commission’s Deputy Director (Publicity), Mr Nick Dazang, in Abuja.
The bulletin said that Jega gave the advice when he addressed the RECs and members of staff during the just-concluded INEC retreat in Kaduna.
“All eyes are on us, our friends, partners, concerned citizens, and indeed, even our adversaries.
“We must be more vigilant, be more committed and strengthen our harmony at all levels to achieve the desired results,” the bulletin quoted the chairman as saying.
Jega, the bulletin said, urged management and staff to do their job with integrity, impartial and non-partisan manner.
He observed that in reviewing the commission’s sundry programmes and plans to be implemented this year, “it is evident that there will be gaps”.
It said Jega urged participants at the retreat to ensure that those gaps were filled and that fundamental things that needed to be done were implemented.
It stated that the commission would ensure that competencies were improved and that those who had the capacity to deliver more efficiently were given the opportunity to do so.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that it was at the retreat that INEC released the timetables for the Osun and Ekiti governorship elections and that of next year’s general elections.
Also, yesterday, the Chief Maxi Okwu-led faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has asked INEC, not to recognise Chief Victor Umeh as the chairman.
In a petition to the commission dated January 27, Okwu said that contempt proceedings had been instituted against Umeh and Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, the party’s National Secretary, for undermining the judgment of an Abuja High Court.
He said that his attention had been drawn to a letter signed by the two ousted officers to the commission in disobedience to court order.
Okwu, who was recognised as national chairman by the court, said that the former officers had still been parading themselves as chairman and secretary.
“Our attention has been drawn to a letter addressed to the commission, and co-signed by our erstwhile national chairman and secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi”.
“This is quite in character since this saga began. Please, note that we have since commenced committal proceedings against them for contempt of court with the issuance of Form 48,” he said.
The Okwu-led faction advised Prof. Jega, not to undermine the authority of the court.
The letter said Umeh and Shinkaffi seemed not to know that an application for stay of execution was not a stay of execution.
“They also mischievously forgot that courts do not stay declaratory relief.
“In total disobedience to a valid and subsisting final judgment in which Jega and themselves were parties, the duo have been misbehaving as if the country is a jungle where everyman is on his own and only the fittest survive.
“Since judgment was delivered against them on January 15 to their chagrin, they have used all sorts of unprintable words and guttersnipe language to insult the Judiciary in private and in the media,” it stated.
Okwu said that on January 18 in a televised show of lawlessness in Awka, the Umeh-led faction gathered at a purported APGA National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
“They also claimed to have called a national convention for February 14,” he said.
