Jega’s exit will take a natural course – FG

Jega’s exit will take a natural course – FG

The exit of Prof. Atahiru Jega as the chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission will take a natural course, the Federal Government has said.
Supervising Minister of Information and Minister of Culture, Tourism and National
Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, said this when he met with newsmen at the
headquarters of the Ministry of Information in Abuja on Friday.
While answering a question on whether the Federal Government planned to send
Jaga on terminal leave before the expiration of his tenure in June, Duke said Jega
would not be sacked as President Goodluck Jonathan had pledged but added that
his exit from the electoral body would follow a natural sequence.
The minister said, “On the issue of the INEC chairman, I align myself with what
the president said that he has no plan to sack the INEC chairman.
“That is not to say that if it is time for the INEC chairman to naturally exit his
office, then the natural course of things will not take place.
“It is like saying, a civil servant has done 35 years or achieved the age of 60; we
now begin to say that he must not retire or he must retire. I think all of that is in
the terrain of the presidency and he has spoken.”
Duke added, “I will also like to say once on that issue. I recall that for several
weeks now; people keep threatening the president on the shift in the date of the
poll. You begin to wonder that parties have a couple of extra weeks in order to
reinvigorate their campaigns and try to reach as many voters as possible. Rather
than do that, you begin to identify imaginary pockets of unlikely developments and
then focus your attention on them and then when you lose election, you begin to
complain.”
Members of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate had on Thursday alleged
that there was a fresh plot by the Federal Government to prevent Jega from
superintending over the forthcoming general elections.
The APC senators, led by George Akume, told a news conference in Abuja that
they heard from a reliable source that the Head of Service would direct Jega to
proceed on his pre-retirement leave next week.
“We have received information from a very credible source that next week, the
Chairman of INEC will be given a letter from the office of the Head of the Civil
Service to proceed on a terminal leave,” they said.
The opposition senators alleged that the Federal Government was trying to use a
circular from the HoS dated August 11, 2010 to place Jega on compulsory pre-
retirement leave.
They said, “Whether the letter emanates from the HoS office or the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, it does not make sense. Even if we go by the
terms of the Civil Service circular of August 11, 2010, (it) is not applicable
whatsoever to the INEC chairman.”
The lawmakers explained that the circular, with reference number HCSF/
CMO/1772/TI/11, talks about clarifications on pre-retirement leave, which is only
applicable to tenured officers who are career civil servants.
They said anyone who has spent 30 years in service or has attained 60 years of
age was bound to disengage officially from the service. The senators however
said that the case of Jega did not fall into any of these.
The lawmakers claimed that Jega’s offence was his readiness to conduct the
elections when the Peoples Democratic Party-controlled Federal Government was
not.
The opposition senators insisted that using the issue of card readers to discredit
Jega would not work because the National Assembly appropriated money for that
purpose.