Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Olusegun Agbaje has dismissed as unfounded, a media report that Resident Electoral Commissioners were planning for a showdown with the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega.
The report alleged that there exist a plot to pass a vote of no confidence on Professor Jega by the RECs.
But addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, the Ondo REC said the report was orchestrated by politicians bent on causing confusion in the electoral body and discrediting its leadership ahead of the elections.
The INEC official said: “As the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, I am not aware of any plan to pass a vote of no confidence on our Chairman, Professor Jega, by national and resident electoral commissioners as being alleged in some quarters.
“It is the handiwork of a few lazy politicians, they just want to cause confusion in the land and with the prayers and support of all Nigerians, they will not succeed.
“Even if the national and resident electoral commissioners are to meet today to vote on our chairman on any issue especially the 2015 general elections, I am sure he will get nothing less than 80 per cent votes in his favour because he is a team player any time any day.
“Nigeria is blessed to have such a man as the chairman of INEC at this point in time. As a team player who knows his onions, Jega consults widely at all times on all issues.
“If he consults with the national electoral commissioners on any issue and he still needs additional inputs, he will quickly summon all the state RECs for further consultation as well as other stakeholders, including the leaders of the registered political parties, civil society organisations, the National Assembly, the security agencies, the press and others.”
On the mock election and test running of the Card Reader Machines conducted in some states at the weekend, Agbaje described the exercise as a huge success.
He appealed to political parties to embrace the new technology which, according to him, was meant to eliminate all sorts of known electoral malpractices at the polls.
“There is nothing to fear about the introduction of the new technology,” Agbaje assured.
“I supervised the exercise in Lagos and we saw it all, everything went on smoothly. In fact there was a man who came from another area not covered by the test running to where we operated the card reader and his card was rejected outrightly; that is the extent people will go to discredit all what INEC is doing to deliver a credible election.”
Agbaje further disclosed that the commission had distributed about 1,105,709 PVCs representing 74 per cent of the voting population in Ondo State.
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