Fayose: If Jega is removed, heavens won’t fall

Fayose: If Jega is removed, heavens won’t fall

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has described outbursts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the possible removal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, as “mere comedy,” saying; “President Goodluck Jonathan can sack Jega if he wishes and if he does, heavens will not fall.”

The governor, who said APC leaders should stop
acting as if Nigeria belongs to them, added: “By
turning themselves to advocates and defenders of
the INEC chairman, the APC and its agents have
shown that they have a deal with Jega to manipulate
the elections and that the deal will be frustrated if
he is asked to leave office.”
Fayose said in a statement on Wednesday signed by
his Special Assistant on Public Communications and
New Media, Lere Olayinka, that “removal of Jega and
any other appointees of the Federal Government is a
prerogative of the president, which no one can
question, provided laid down rules are followed.”
He said the position expressed by the House of
Representatives was that of the APC members in the
House, urging that “the APC lawmakers should
rather pay attention to the ill-health of their party’s
presidential candidate, Major General Mohammadu
Buhari (rtd), whose whereabouts is now a mystery.”
The governor described Jega as partisan, saying; “By
his actions and utterances, Jega had already
demonstrated his bias in support of the APC. For
instance, how can Jega explain the 80 per cent
distribution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) in Boko
Haram-ravaged Borno and Yobe states while less
than 40 per cent distributed in Lagos as at February
7 that the election was postponed?
“It is on record that Prof Maurice Iwu was asked to
proceed
on terminal leave two months to the end of his
tenure. Is Jega not a beneficiary of Iwu’s removal?
So, if Iwu was asked to go on terminal leave before
the expiration of his tenure for Jega to assume
office, what difference does it make if Jega too is
asked to proceed on terminal leave before the
expiration of his tenure?”
Speaking further, Fayose said: “It is the president
that can
determine whether or not Jega will go on the
mandatory three months terminal leave which
should commence on March 8, and if the president
decides that the INEC chairman should go on
terminal leave, what can the APC loudmouths do?
“They boasted before the postponement of the
elections that they would go on street protests, but
did they do anything? They made noise when Justice
Isa Ayo Salami was removed from office as President
of the Court of Appeal, what did their noise amount
to?
“Therefore, let me say it categorically that the noise
being made by the APC and their agents will amount
to nothing because if the president removes Jega
today, heavens will not fall.”