Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 questioned the credibility of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, adding that if President Goodluck Jonathan sacks him, nothing will happen, as the noise being made by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was “mere comedy.”
Speaking via a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said the APC had shown that it has an arrangement with Jega to manipulate the forthcoming elections, hence vehement defence of the INEC Chairman by the opposition party leaders.
Governor Fayose also advised the APC to focus on the questionable health status of its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, whose whereabouts is still shrouded with mystery, as the removal of Jega is the prerogative of President Jonathan, as is typical with any other Federal Government appointee.
He said: “By his actions and utterances, Jega had already demonstrated his bias in support of the APC. For instance, how can Jega explain the 80 percent distribution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) in Boko Haram ravaged Borno and Yobe States while less than 40 percent distributed in Lagos as at February 7 that the election was postponed?
“It is on record that Prof Maurice Iwu was asked to proceed on terminal leave two months to the end of his tenure? Is Jega not a beneficiary of Iwu’s removal? So if Iwu was asked to go on terminal leave before the expiration of his tenure for Jega to assume office, what difference does it make if Jega too is asked to proceed on terminal leave before the expiration of his tenure?
“It is the president that can determine whether or not Jega will go on the mandatory three months terminal leave which should commence on March 8, and if the president decides that the INEC chairman should go on terminal leave, what can the APC loudmouths do?
“They boasted before the postponement of the elections that they would go on street protests, but did they do anything? They made noise when Justice Isa Ayo Salami was removed from office as president of the Court of Appeal, what did their noise amount to?
“Therefore, let me say it categorically that the noise being made by the APC and their agents will amount to nothing because if the president removes Jega today, heavens will not fall.”
