Prof. Jega
The Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday, reiterated his
preparedness to conduct the general elections as scheduled but
maintained that only the military could guarantee the sanctity of the
March 28 and April 11 dates.
Jega, who appeared
before the Senate to explain the level of INEC’s preparedness for the
elections, however, stunned many of the lawmakers when he revealed that
one million Permanent Voter Cards had yet to be received by the
commission from the manufacturers.
The Senators had thoroughly grilled him after he made about three-hour presentation and demonstrated how the card readers work.
Responding to a question by the Minority
Leader, Senator George Akume, to give a clear assurance on the dates,
Jega replied, “I think it is a very difficult question to answer.
“I have said consistently that there are
things under the control of electoral commission and there are things
that are not under the control of electoral commission. For things that
are under our control, I can give definite and categorical assurances.
“On what is not under our control, it is
futile, it is fruitless and useless to give a definite guarantee on
them. I think that question should be directed appropriately. The
questions of security, I will leave it, I don’t think I am competent to
answer it sufficiently.”
Asked how he would respond if the security agencies requested a further delay, Jega said doing so would be illegal.
He then made reference to a
constitutional provision that requires elections to be concluded at
least 30 days before May 29, when a new government must be sworn in.
“Every Nigerian knows we want elections
to hold… within a constitutional time frame. The security agencies are
(made up of) patriotic Nigerians. Let’s give them the benefit of the
doubt,” he told the senators.
He added, “We should be fair also to the
military. Soldiers are also patriotic Nigerians. I don’t see how
anybody will contemplate any extension beyond these six weeks.
“There is no constitutional grounds upon
which you can do that. For us, we work by the constitution, by the law .
That is what is guiding us and we should all put the interest of the
nation at heart.
“The human factor is always significant,
it is always important but we believe that working together with
security and other stakeholders, we should be able to prevent negative
human intervention that can create problems.
“I kept saying consistently that INEC is
not a security organisation. We are an election management body; so we
rely a lot on security to be able to ensure that things are done well
and that there is no disruption of the electoral process.
“We have been working very closely with
the inter agencies consultative committee on election security and that
is why for us, if the service chiefs say that we can’t guarantee
security, give us more time, what is the alternative security
arrangements ?
“If we consulted with the stakeholders
and we cannot find an answer, what happens? We are going to use close to
700, 000 ad hoc staff. We can’t send people to the field in that kind
of a situation.
“Our prayer is that in the next six
weeks, there will be significant improvement in the security situation
for us to hold the elections all over this country in a very secure
environment.
“There are certain questions that we are
not really competent to answer. Certain questions should be directed to
the military; they can answer them better.”
The INEC boss expressed confidence in the
effectiveness of the card readers, stressing that their use for
accreditation during the elections would not contravene any provision
either in the electoral act or in the constitution.
He also said that anyone who clones and tries to prevent the use of the card readers would be treated as a criminal.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment