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Jega
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With the successful postponement of
the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the
Presidency has launched a two-pronged war to ensure that President Goodluck
Jonathan wins the election convincingly.
The two strategies are, firstly, to stop
Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress candidate from contesting the
election with Jonathan and, secondly, the replacement of the INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru
Jega, with a less independent-minded person.
Jega, it was gathered, had been
described by hawks around the president of being too independent-minded and
‘uncooperative’ despite being given the job on a platter of gold by the
president’s men.
Vanguard learned that Jega might have unwittingly played into the hands of the
forces arrayed against him by agreeing to shift the elections.
Legal war to
disqualify Buhari
Competent sources said last night
that the move to remove Jega and the legal fireworks against Buhari, would be
taken up simultaneously with effect from this week given the timeframe made
possible by the shift.
The retired general is to be
prosecuted by a team of legal luminaries for ‘lying on oath’ that he had a
school certificate with the Nigerian Army when he knew that it was untrue. The
plaintiffs are said to have settled for trying Buhari for alleged ‘perjury’
instead of outright non-possession of certificate following legal advice that
the latter would be more difficult to prove within the time at their disposal.
Vanguard learnt that although Jega reluctantly succumbed to pressure from the
Presidency and its security chiefs to shift the polls, he might still not be
allowed by the forces to conduct the rescheduled elections between March 28 and
April 11. Sources disclose that the Presidency was no longer comfortable with
Jega and was, therefore, working tirelessly to get him out of the commission to
pave the way for a more ‘trusted hand’ to conduct the rescheduled elections.
It was learnt that the forces arrayed
against the INEC boss had convinced the President not to renew Jega’s tenure,
which is expected to lapse on June 13 this year. The forces, it was learnt,
felt that Jega was rather too ‘difficult’ to deal with, having not allowed
himself to be dictated to by anyone since assuming office like other appointees
of the government.
It was learnt that in a bid to sweep
off Jega from his seat without raising any dust, he would be asked to comply
with the civil service procedure by proceeding on his three months terminal
leave with effect from March 1, this year since he is expected to retire on
June 13.
S-West gov’s
brother may replace Jega
There are speculations the
Presidency was considering bringing in another academic from the South-West,
who is currently heading a tertiary institution in the country. The professor
of Political Science and International Relations is said to be a sibling of a
serving governor in the South-West, who is a close ally of President Goodluck
Jonathan and his party.
Competent sources disclose that
although the name of the academic had been made known in security circles, it
was not clear whether the man had been cleared by the forces with a view to
sending his name to the National Assembly for possible confirmation, as
required by law.
Working against
Jonathan’s interest
As a prelude to removing Jega
from office, some close allies of the President had started accusing him of
taking side with the opposition to undermine the success of Jonathan and his
party in the next election.
Earlier last week, Jonathan’s
godfather, Chief Edwin Clark and other prominent politicians from the Southern
part of the country had accused Jega of working against the interest of the
president and the PDP and asked him to resign from the commission.
Although no evidence was adduced by
Clark and his group to support their allegation, they nonetheless called for
the arrest of Jega. Similarly, Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, on Saturday, said Jega had lied about the
state of the commission’s preparedness for the conduct of the election.
In the same vein, the National Publicity
Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh, accused INEC of working with the
opposition to deny its members of permanent voter cards in some states. He
called on the security agents to probe the commission over the development.
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