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Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega
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Any attempt to send
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru
Jega on terminal leave will be illegal, lawyers said yesterday.
According to them, the
1999 Constitution specifically provides that the INEC chief can only be removed
if there is evidence that he is unable to discharge the functions of his office
or for misconduct.
The Nation reports calls for the removal of
Jega and his resignation by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sympathizers for
some reasons, including INEC’s failure to distribute the Permanent Voter Cards
(PVCs) to all potential voters, have been intensified since the postponement of
the February 14 and 28 elections. The President Goodluck Jonathan Lagos
Grassroots Project, one of the numerous groups rooting for Jonathan’s re-election,
has been running advertorials in newspapers disparaging the INEC chief and
calling for his resignation.
Spokesman of the INEC
chair Mr. Kayode Idowu, denied that the electoral agency had been manipulating
the PVCs distribution.
Yesterday, lawyers noted
that Section 157 of the Constitution provides that Jega can only be removed by
the President with the support of two thirds of the Senate.
Asking him to go on
terminal leave before the expiration of his term, they said, equates to removal
from office.
Unless there evidence
that Jega is infirm in mind or body, or has engaged in gross misconduct, he
cannot be removed under any guise before the end of his tenure, the lawyers
said.
Section 157 says: “(INEC
chairman) may only be removed from office by the president acting on an address
supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed
for inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from
infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) or for misconduct.”
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