Jega
Stalwarts of political parties yesterday met with the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, advising him against going ahead with the controversial 30,027 additional polling units created by the Commission he heads.
The representatives of the political parties also warned the electoral umpire on the dangers of turning a blind eye on some amorphous groups’ campaign for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, saying such clearly breached Section 221 of the constitution.
It was learnt that the INEC boss vainly attempted to justify the creation of the additional polling units at the meeting between him and his top Commissioners, on the one hand, and leaders of the political parties under the aegis of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), on the other hand.
A party official present at the meeting volunteered to Pointblanknews.com that, “Jega spent over six hours trying to sell the idea to us. This didn’t work. He claimed it was a mere administrative exercise. We countered that the parties should have been carried along before embarking on such a political exercise.
“Apparently, he called the meeting in the face of the firestorm his decision has created. Beautiful as it may seem, we pointedly told him to reverse the decision and wait until after the 2015 elections before creating a single additional polling unit.”
An officer of the council, who confirmed the meeting, said the INEC Chairman was full of apologies for taking the council for granted, and promised to subsequently consult more with it.
As regards the activities of the pro-Jonathan’s groups, the parties accused Jega of failing to invoke the powers vested in INEC to prosecute electoral offenders.
According to the Source, “we drew his attention to Section 221 of the constitution which prohibits political activities by associations other than registered political parties.”
Section 221 reads, “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election”.
The IPAC officer continued, “We have been witnesses to the obnoxious political activities of some groups under various funny names. This is a criminal offence for which they should be appropriately sanctioned. Mr. President himself should know better having sworn to uphold and defend the constitution of Nigeria. He cannot be seen to be looking the other way while these funny groups blatantly use his name to breach the constitution.
“His party, PDP, is the only organization that may canvass for votes on his behalf- so long as it falls within the 90 days prior to election stipulated by the electoral Act. To act otherwise is to breach the constitution, which on its own is an impeachable offence,” he declared.
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