The plot to remove the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, has thickened as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PDPPCO) yesterday finally alleged that he is working with the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the forthcoming election.

Director of media of the PDPPCO, Femi Fani-Kayode, who made the allegation during a press conference, further alleged that Jega met with some leaders of the APC in Dubai.

However, when asked to provide evidence of these allegations, Fani-Kayode declined, noting that he was aware that the allegations were weighty and would expect Jega to react.

He threatened to pass a vote of no confidence on Jega if he fails to respond to the allegations of partisanship and live up to his responsibilities as an independent electoral umpire.

This is coming against the background of alleged moves to either force the INEC chairman to resign or make him proceed on terminal leave from March 1, in anticipation of the end of his tenure in office on June 30.

However, the spokesman of the PDPPCO stated that Jega deliberately refused to tell Nigerians the whole truth about the postponement, "thus providing the APC a questionable platform to accuse us of complicity in the decision to postpone the elections".

He added that the statistics of Permanent Voter Card (PVC) collection for states and geo-political zones before the postponement of the elections buttressed "Jega's contrived grand conspiratorial alliance with the APC to fraudulently secure victory in the elections".

He continued, "We must state here and again that the decision to postpone the elections was INEC's since it is constitutionally saddled with that responsibility.

"The commission has done just that and it had at the press conference hinted that it was having challenges with the distribution and collection of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). The commission had claimed substantial readiness for the general elections despite that as at 5th February, 2015, the total number of PVCs collected was 45, 829, 808, representing 66.58% of the total number of registered voters.

"We had immediately commended the INEC on the grounds that the postponement would enable the 23 million eligible voters who had not collected their PVCs to do so before the new dates announced for the elections.

"But we have now realised how Professor Jega had disingenuously presented the reasons for the postponement of the elections at the press conference, making it look as if the problem was mainly security. We would like to say that the major issue that informed INEC's decision was the deliberate attempt by the commission to disenfranchise over 23 million eligible voters who are yet to collect their PVCs.

"The matter is that INEC has failed in its responsibility to produce and distribute PVCs to about 34 per cent of registered voters who would require the cards to vote in the elections. "We express our concerns today that Jega may have decided to aid the APC to rig the forthcoming elections through the manipulation of the production, distribution and collection of PVCs such that emerging trends have consistently shown calculated attempts to deprive parts of the country that would traditionally vote for President Jonathan of their PVCs whilst the parts of the country that would traditionally vote for the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, are already armed with their PVCs.

 

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