By Olusegun Lawrence The Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly has called for the immediate arrest of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega and the postponement of the February 14 presidential election.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, the spokesperson of the Assembly, Femi Okurounmu, said the postponement would allow for the re-constitution, repositioning and reprocessing of INEC to discharge its responsibility of conducting an impartial election.
The Assembly is chaired by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme while Edwin Clark and Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu are leaders of the South south and South West respectively.
Okurounmu, who addressed alongside former Anambra State Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife former Information Minister, and Walter Ofonagoro, accused Jega of acting northern agenda.
They accused Jega of criminally masterminding the procurement of PVCs for under-aged pupils in contravention of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010.
The group which is sympathetic to the re-election bid of President Jonathan, alleged Jega directed the release of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians in the north.
According to the group, Jega’s directive was responsible for the near 100 percent distribution rate recorded in the north compared to 50 percent in the south.
“We authoritatively gathered with unassailable and incontrovertible evidence that the INEC Chairman, who was away in Lagos for an official engagement, through one of his National Commissioners that represented him, met with select leaders of the Northern Elders Forum led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi on the 20th August, 2014 where strategies and modalities for enthroning a President of Northern extraction through vote rigging were discussed and agreed upon.
“The meeting was sequel to an earlier meeting of Northern Elders Forum held on 16th August, 2014 at Arewa house, Kaduna under the chairmanship of Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Sule where it was resolved that all avenues must be explored towards enthroning a President of Northern extraction in the forthcoming 2015 elections” the group stated.
“Despite Jega’s public admission that the commission has all funds it requires to conduct the 2015 elections, we are aware that the Northern Elders Forum obtained and distributed 150 pieces of laptops to INEC for each of the Northern states.
“In addition, Jega reportedly directed the release of PVCs in their catchment states to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians and not necessarily to the voters themselves, a situation that culminated in some voters being in possession of two to three PVCs.
“This accounted for nearly 100 percent PVC collection rate especially in the North West states as compared with less than 50 per cent collection rate in the Southern states. This is the reason why Lagos state with a sophisticated population of over 5.2 million has not been distributed more 2.5 million PVCs,” the group stated.
