Ekwueme, Clark, Okurounmu and others ask Jega to resign over ethnically-biased polling units

Ekwueme, Clark, Okurounmu and others ask Jega to resign over ethnically-biased polling units

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Atahiru Jega has been asked to resign for nursing ethnic agenda that would favour his native north in the planned Nigeria's 2015 general elections.

The leadership of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA), led by former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme; a former Federal Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark; and Senator Femi Okurounmu, asked Prof. Jega, to resign from office with immediate effect.

The SNPA accused him of having ethnic agenda with the commission’s recent creation of additional 30,000 polling units in the country saying the action was not justifiable, and therefore called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately re-organise the composition and the structure of the commission immediately. Jega was accused of of allocating 21,615 polling units to the North as against 8,412 polling units to southern Nigeria, in a blatant attempt to favour northern candidates who would capitalise on the polling units to rig elections.

This was contained in their communiqué released after the group met in Abuja on yesterday. The Assembly stated via the communiqué that it was wrong for Jega to have done what he did.
“Jega cannot exculpate himself from being a proponent of ethic agenda; we are the least surprised that he has been recruited to perfect the ploy of some persons from parts of this country to truncate our nascent democracy.

“With the indefensible employment of proportional representation and equality as parameters, Jega decided not to equilibrate but to marginalize the entire southern Nigeria by arbitrarily and capriciously allocating 21,615 polling units to the North as against 8,412 polling units to southern Nigeria.

“Whereas we have clearly argued the lack of need for any additional polling unit given the reduced number of registered voters consequent upon the Automated Fingers Identification System.

“Creating a phantom 30,000 polling units and whimsically allocating them to favour the North is the height of insult to the people of southern Nigeria.”

The chairman of the commission had however defended the lopsided and absurd creation of the polling units, saying that the action was meant to bring the total polling units in the country to 150,000 and that it would decongest the polling units ahead of the 2015 general elections.Speaking at a press conference held in the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on yesterday, Jega insisted that the commission would not rescind its decision on the new polling units.

He said, “I am not an ethnic or religious jingoist. My antecedents are there; I have been accused of many things. Those who don’t want progress resort to sponsoring fictitious groups to pull us down.

“These critics are mischief makers who hang everything on ethnic or religious context. That is not the case as far as INEC is concerned, there is nothing we can do. We believe that all rational thinking people in those groups will later see reason with us. This is not the first time people are calling for my resignation or being fired. I will be there in 2015.”