Council of State may discuss poll shift tomorrow

Council of State may discuss poll shift tomorrow

The calls for the postponement of this month’s general elections may be discussed during Thursday’s (tomorrow) Council of State meeting convened
by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The council consists of the President, the Vice-President, all former Presidents
or ex-Heads of State, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria, the President of the
Senate, all state governors and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

One of the key responsibilities of the body is to advise the President in the
exercise of his powers with respect to the Independent National Electoral
Commission, including the appointments of members of the commission.

Proponents of the polls’ shift had hinged it on the inability of INEC to distribute
enough Permanent Voter Cards to registered voters. The call is widely believed to
be engineered by the Presidency, which though had denied the charge.
INEC had however insisted that there would be no postponement of the elections.
The PUNCH however learnt from a Presidency official in Abuja on Tuesday that the
Council of State would review the preparations for the elections by INEC and the
relevant security agencies.
He said that information available to the government showed that contrary to
the claims by the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the commission was not
yet ready for the elections.
For example, the official claimed that INEC only awarded the contract for the
printing of ballot papers for the February 14 presidential election last Monday.
He wondered how the ballot papers would be made ready before February 14
which is the first day of the polls.
The official said, “The truth of the matter is that if urgent step is not taken, Prof.
Jega may end up ridiculing this country.
“Available information shows that the commission is not set for this election
contrary to Jega’s claim.
“We learnt he actually summoned a meeting recently with a view to postponing
the election but he is scared of the opposition who have been kicking against
such.
“This Thursday (tomorrow) meeting will definitely review INEC’s preparations and
take a stand.”
Another Presidency source also informed The PUNCH that Jonathan might use the
opportunity provided by the meeting to garner support for the postponement of
the polls.
“The Presidency is not resting on its oars concerning the plan to shift the
elections. It is already in talks with some members of the council,” he said.
On what the Presidency would do if the plan fails, he replied, “we would opt for
another plan, which is to return to the drawing board; plan a new strategy on how
to deal with our opponents.”
To underscore the importance Jonathan attaches to the meeting, his re-election
campaign rally earlier billed to hold on Thursday in Yenagoa, the capital of his
home state, Bayelsa, has been put on hold.
It was gathered that the rally might hold later in the day if the meeting ended on
time or be shifted to Friday.
The PUNCH has however learnt that some of the proponents of election
postponement might have perfected plan to ensure that Jega did not return as
INEC chairman if their plan materialises.
A week-long investigation by one of our correspondents showed that the
Presidency was waiting patiently for INEC to yield to the pressure before coming
out with its real plan for Jega.
It was gathered that the Presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party were
not ready for the elections and believed that their chances could be affected if
the elections were held as scheduled.
Because of this, the Presidency, backed by some hawks in the PDP, are said to
be waiting for an auspicious time to ask the INEC chairman to proceed on
terminal leave. His tenure ends on June 9, 2015.
The PDP source said, “The plan is to discredit the election by forcing
postponement. When this is done, sponsored people and groups would start
asking for the sack of Jega.
“At this point, the government would then say because of this, he should proceed
on terminal leave and then ask the most senior national commissioner to take
over and conduct the election.”
Jega’s nomination as INEC chairman followed approval by a meeting of the
Council of State.
Jonathan had said then that he had never known Jega, a former chairman of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Jega’s candidature for the job was said to have been facilitated by a presidency
top official, Hassan Tukur, who is from Adamawa State.
Parties disagree on postponement
Indication that the 26 registered political parties are divided over the calls for
the postponement of the elections emerged in Abuja with 16 of them and five
presidential candidates in support.
They told a news conference on Tuesday that they would boycott the polls if their
opinions were not respected.
The parties include the United Democratic Party, the Citizen Peoples Party, the
Peoples Party of Nigeria, the Action Alliance, the Peoples Democratic Congress,
the Labour Party; and Unity Party of Nigeria.
Others are the Alliance for Democracy, the Democratic Peoples Party, the New
Nigerian Peoples Party, the Peoples Party of Nigeria and the Independent
Democrat.
The five presidential candidates at the briefing were Godson Okoye, Sam Okoye,
C.O Allagoe, Tunde Anifowose and Ganiu Galadima.
The political parties said, “We the concerned leaders of political parties have
observed some dangerous trends, which if not checked may negatively and
adversely affect our democracy.”
The political parties premised their argument for the postponement on security,
distribution of PVCs and people deserting their places of abode for their villages.
Okoye, who spoke on their behalf, called on the Federal Government to take
necessary steps to provide adequate security for Nigerians to go out and collect
their PVCs in order to be able to exercise their civic and constitutional duty.
He called on INEC to consider shifting the date of elections to sometime in March
or April.
“We are not urging INEC to do anything that is unlawful, illegal or
unconstitutional. It is unfortunately becoming clear by the day that most
Nigerians appear not to be ready for election but are ready for violence,” he said.
He also flayed the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, for meeting
with only the presidential candidates of the APC Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
and Jonathan in Lagos.
But at a different news conference, the presidential candidate of the United
Progressive Party, Chekwas Okorie, condemned the call for the postponement of
the elections.
Okorie described the call as a “mischievously contrived clamour.”
He said, “The reasons given by the proponents of the postponement that a great
number of Nigerians will be disenfranchised having not been given their
Permanent Voter Cards which will enable them to participate in the election is a
contrived reason and to a large extent pedestrian.
“As we speak, over 80 per cent of registered voters have received their PVCs
according to latest figures released by INEC and this may increase to 90 per cent
or above after the close of distribution of PVCs on February 8 2015, as planned
by INEC.”
Meanwhile, INEC has distributed 977,727 out of the 1,494169 PVCs received by
its Ondo State office.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Segun Agbaje, disclosed this to
journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that the distribution of the cards to all the Local Government Areas in
the state would end on Saturday.
Agbaje said,”We are preparing very well for the elections as we ought to do in line
with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
“All non-sensitive materials would be deployed in the LGAs before the end of the
week as security arrangements for their movement are almost concluded.
“We received 1,494,169 PVCs out of which we have distributed 977,727,
representing 65.4 per cent, remaining 516,442 representing 34.6 per cent.”
On other preparations for the elections, Agbaje said, ‘‘The training of electoral
officers had been completed while that of Supervisory Presiding Officers started
on February 2 and will end on February 4.”
According to him, the training of Presiding Officers and Assistant Presiding
Officers will be between February 6 and 8.
He added that INEC in the state had set up an Election Day Operations Situation
Room to directly receive complaints and enquiries from voters, observers,
journalists and the general public on the days of the elections.
The numbers are 08142188630, 09021446492, 07055687657 and 08184765105.