Jega
The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has appealed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to investigate the Commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the State, Mrs. Gesila Khan. The APC is making the appeal over allegations that Khan received a N600 million bribe from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.
Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Davies Ibiamu Ikeanya at a media briefing argued that the investigation would help INEC determine the level of rot Khan had superintended as INEC boss in Rivers State.
The party argued that the allegation alone was sufficient to disqualify the REC, Gesila Khan from holding such a sensitive public office, or, in fact, any other office of trust.
Khan who the APC described as “an indisputable hatchet-man” for PDP in Rivers state, was further accused of frustrating the APC in Rivers state.
Ikeanya stated that in outright contravention of her oath of office, the state REC had played open partisanship and allegiance to PDP, recruiting one Bocco Ekong, INEC’s Head of Operations in the state.
According to him, “Mrs. Khan ought to have resigned her appointment long-time ago when it became obvious to her that she lacked the confidence of the APC, and other political parties in Rivers State in her dealings as the electoral supervisor for INEC in Rivers State.
“If for no other reason, Mrs. Khan ought to have cared enough about Nigeria to resign her appointment in order to preserve the integrity of the electoral processes in Rivers State as well as their outcome.
“Mrs. Khan has transformed from a Resident Electoral Commissioner to an errand girl of the PDP. In order to justify their huge collections from PDP, Mrs. Khan, in connivance with Mr. Ekong, has displayed hostility to the All Progressives Party, APC, and its governorship candidate.
“At a point, she personally supervised the thorough beating of APC’s State Agent and lawyer, Barr. Achinike William-Wobodo, right inside the premises of INEC and at other times, had openly disparaged APC.
“Mrs. Khan has invented every tactic in hell to frustrate the APC from obtaining necessary and relevant, statutory Certified True Copies, CTCs, of electoral materials it shall use in her petition to the Election Petition Tribunal.
“Aware of the time-bound status of election petition matters, Mrs. Khan, in order to justify the bribe, has worked for the PDP by turning her office into results’ writing centre, where, shamelessly, in tandem with men of questionable character such as Mr. Ekong, has daily altered supposed results to tally with the huge figures they allocated to PDP at the April purported election.
“To avoid appearing before justice to defend the indefensible, Mrs. Khan has been busy importing figures that never existed all in the name of election results. If she had no skeleton in her cupboard, why had she barred APC and her governorship candidate, Dr. Peterside, from obtaining the materials despite several letters and complaints?”
“The APC further argued that justice will be grossly impaired if Mrs. Khan continued in her incumbent office while she faced an investigation, saying that it would amount to being the investigator, judge and jury in her own case.
“We challenge Jega to a moral test, how he will sweep this one under the carpet? We challenge him to prove to the world that there is nothing “special” about Khan that is yet hidden from others.
“We wonder why Jega has allowed Khan, who is a true offside of personal and corporate integrity, to remain in Rivers State. This additional burden of bribery tying Mrs. Khan’s neck is nothing but a proof that even if Jega let her stay in Rivers state for an eternity as REC, Mrs. Khan will remain an antithesis of democracy and all its tenets. The Workers’ Day gift INEC can give to democracy, and by extension, Rivers people, on May 1 is the immediate investigation of Mrs. Khan. And as is the global best practice, she should stand aside as REC while investigations would last.
“And should Jega decline to investigate her, he would stand eternally accused of being an accessory after the fact of a democratic coup d’état. Let Jega take this step to reaffirm INEC’s stance as an impartial umpire and in justification of the testimonials of him as an honourable man and an incorruptible judge. We call on Jega not to allow Mrs. Khan soil his hard-earned reputation”, Ikeanya said.
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