Elder statesman and former Federal Commissioner for Information in the General Yakubu Gowon administration, Chief Edwin Clark, weekend said the Southern Peoples Assembly had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court over its decision to create additional 30,000 polling units in the country.
Speaking with newsmen in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Government area of Delta State during Saturday’s council polls, he accused INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, of pursuing a secret agenda, claiming majority of the Northern leaders were not in support of the INEC Chairman because his action was capable of dividing the country.
Chief Clark advised those against President Jonathan’s second term bid to jettison such idea as the President was qualified to contest the 2015 election in line with section 137 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended.
He said: “When this thing happened, that 30,000 additional polling units had been created in the country, as a leader, and being the interim chairman of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, I quickly summoned a meeting in Abuja which was attended by the former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme. Bishop Gbonigi was there too. We condemned what INEC was doing and went further to pass a vote of no confidence on its leader, Prof. Jega and we asked him to resign. Then, he held a press conference the following day. We condemned him again and today, we have gone to court over the matter.
“This thing has security risk, not only security risk; it will cause trouble in this country. A situation where you are creating 30,000 new units, and you gave about 22,000 to the North and only 8,000 to the whole of the South without basis; you did not work it on anything. So, this is dangerous. That is why we asked Jega to resign.
Look at what happened recently. He held a meeting with all the states Resident Electoral Commissioners and they went to Abuja. About 30 percent of them attended the meeting and they asked for votes. Thireteen of them voted, three of them abstained from voting because they were against what Jega was doing. This was added to the 13 that had earlier voted, it would have been 16 against 13. But he is still pushing ahead.
“The Senate has written a letter to him on the same issue. What did he do? He is still carrying on. So, there is a secret agenda and I know that most of the leaders from the North are not supporting him. He knows what he is doing, but if you are doing something and the people say, they no longer trust you, you should find your way out. He is a political scientist. He was a Vice-Chancellor of a university, and so, he should go since the people have no confidence in him. But we know that he will go in order for us to have a free and fair election in this country.”
Speaking with newsmen in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Government area of Delta State during Saturday’s council polls, he accused INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, of pursuing a secret agenda, claiming majority of the Northern leaders were not in support of the INEC Chairman because his action was capable of dividing the country.
Chief Clark advised those against President Jonathan’s second term bid to jettison such idea as the President was qualified to contest the 2015 election in line with section 137 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended.
He said: “When this thing happened, that 30,000 additional polling units had been created in the country, as a leader, and being the interim chairman of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, I quickly summoned a meeting in Abuja which was attended by the former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme. Bishop Gbonigi was there too. We condemned what INEC was doing and went further to pass a vote of no confidence on its leader, Prof. Jega and we asked him to resign. Then, he held a press conference the following day. We condemned him again and today, we have gone to court over the matter.
“This thing has security risk, not only security risk; it will cause trouble in this country. A situation where you are creating 30,000 new units, and you gave about 22,000 to the North and only 8,000 to the whole of the South without basis; you did not work it on anything. So, this is dangerous. That is why we asked Jega to resign.
Look at what happened recently. He held a meeting with all the states Resident Electoral Commissioners and they went to Abuja. About 30 percent of them attended the meeting and they asked for votes. Thireteen of them voted, three of them abstained from voting because they were against what Jega was doing. This was added to the 13 that had earlier voted, it would have been 16 against 13. But he is still pushing ahead.
“The Senate has written a letter to him on the same issue. What did he do? He is still carrying on. So, there is a secret agenda and I know that most of the leaders from the North are not supporting him. He knows what he is doing, but if you are doing something and the people say, they no longer trust you, you should find your way out. He is a political scientist. He was a Vice-Chancellor of a university, and so, he should go since the people have no confidence in him. But we know that he will go in order for us to have a free and fair election in this country.”
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