Presidency Secretly Planning For Jega’s Removal

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By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

ABUJA — 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.
Anambra Supplementary Election: INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega addressing pressmen , announcing November 30 for Supplementary election at Anambra State while National Commissioner Lawrence Nwuruku looks on in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

The two strategies are to stop Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress candidate from contesting the election with Jonathan and 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 learnt 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.

Vanguard gathered from competent sources 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

Vanguard gathered that in his place, 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 also told Vanguard last night 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.

Source: Vanguard

3 COMMENTS

  1. jega d only way to save ur job is for u to release all d PVC in ur possession and d once u gave to APC and northern emirs, if not no elections but if u can’t retrieve them declare dem missing and print new PVC’ s.

  2. Well wether pdp or jonathan or what so ever, all I know is that they just want to set this country ablaze and if they succeed in removing jega that’s if true and they succeed in raging the election against Buhari then they will surely succeed in setting the whole country ablaze, and then what? Believe the nigeria they us to loot from its treasury will not be there again for them. Why is it difficult for jonathan and all his to admit that they are bunches of failures and they have fail us the christians and our Muslim brothers and he failed the nation, and by the power of God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, I declared the Goodluck Jonathan will drink a sufferness from the cup of hellfire right here on each in Jesus name, no matter how long he hold the election will surely fail in Jesus name, the blood of innocent people spilled in his administration of boko haram system will hunt jonathan Gooluck for the rest of his miserable life in Jesus name, on 29 may 2011 you stood before God and man you took an oath to protect the entire life and properties its honour and its territories. Now you’ve obviously fail all your obligations to the people of this nation, you’ve traded our lives for power and wealth, well you fully well know that you will perish and leave all behind and a course has been place on the house of jonathan that will last forever. Shameless fools of no dignity.

  3. Nobody will replace Jega before June 2015. Nobody. No replacement. No interim. No change in philosophy. No change in implementation. Mr. Jega, the man, may or may not proceed on leave. A replacement may even be nominated. But that replacement would not take office until late June 2015 and would hold absolutely no influence over this election. Those who seek delay, delay, delay, and who laugh at the efforts of Mr. Jega, INEC staff and voters, have no conception of pride of workmanship. The people’s will shall be heard and counted. Mr. Jega or one of his many hard-working, diligent deputies will shock the world on 27 March 2015, giving the instruction to PROCEED AS SCHEDULED. What then? Will the military turn its guns against the distribution of ballots? No matter. Our RIGHT TO CHOOSE shall not be denied. Not in modern Nigeria. Not in 2015. Not ever!