Jega: CLO, others say Jonathan has sinister motive

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

HUMAN rights activists have accused President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party of having a sinister motive with the resolve to remove Prof. Attahiru Jega as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, before the March 28 presidential election.

President of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Mr. Steve Aluko-Daniel; his predecessor, Mr. Titus Mann as well as the Executive Director, Christian Foundation for Social Justice and Equity, Mr. Joseph Sangosanya, who spoke to our correspondent in separate interviews on Sunday, said that the ploy to send Jega on terminal leave was unconstitutional.

They said the INEC boss was not a civil servant hence his service could not be subjected to the civil service rules.

Aluko-Daniel said, “Jega’s removal is uncalled for; it is inciting and provocative as it will amount to electoral impunity and changing the umpire at the peak of his work. It will only further confirm that Jonathan has sinister motive to rig and manipulate himself to power and this will lead to total loss of faith, credibility and confidence in the integrity of Jonathan and INEC, which in itself will spell danger for the peace and unity of Nigeria. It is also a recipe to instigate coup and the purported interim arrangement by the PDP-led government.

Mann said, “The human rights community will resist with all its might any attempt to remove   Jega from office, except this is done by due process. Due process in this context is by the President seeking and obtaining the vote of two-thirds of the members of the Senate supporting the President’s request that Jega be removed for concrete, verifiable reasons that render him unfit to continue in the position.

“His tenure is regulated by the Constitution. He cannot be asked to proceed on pre-retirement leave as he is not a civil servant. His sack in the current circumstances can only serve the purpose of facilitating the rigging of the forthcoming elections, given that Jega has stoutly resisted the pressure to abandon the use of card readers for the elections and for refusing to put INEC at the service of any particular partisan cliques.

Sangosanya said President Jonathan had no right to fire Jega.

“Absolutely no, the President has no right to sack Jega. There is no justification for such. In fact, our position is that on no condition should Jega be removed as such would disrupt INEC programmes and reduce people’s confidence in the system. We admit that he may not have organised a perfect election but there is appreciable progress under his watch so far,” he said.

Meanwhile, the pro-democracy group, Nigerians United for Democracy, has said that Nigeria would be thrown into chaos if an interim government is foisted on the country.

Speaking for the NUD, Aluko-Daniel, at a media briefing in Jos, Plateau State, said the Federal Government could not use the opportunity of poll shift to foist any illegal political arrangement on the country.

Aluko-Daniel said, “We say ‘no’ to interim government; we insist the election must hold and there should be no further postponement. We need to prevent a slide into anarchy; we need to take our destiny in our hands; we need to ensure that darkness does not once again descend on our country. We are insisting that nothing must change the new dates of March 28 and April 11. Elections must be allowed to hold on these dates. Nigeria is on the march again, this time no one will be able to halt the decisive will of the people for democracy and sustainable livelihood.

“As far as we are concerned, the postponement of the elections at the instance of service chiefs cannot be justified in law. It was a plot to undermine the democratic process and prevent Nigerians from exercising their right of franchise.

“Having fought the war on terror for six years, there is no indication that the Boko Haram sect would be wiped out in six weeks. Since the operation is limited to 14 local governments, there was no basis for not holding election in the remaining 760 local government areas in the federation and the six area councils in federal capital territory.”