High Drama at INEC/Stakeholders’ Meeting: Jega shocks Edo guber candidates

*How Chairman refused to meet contenders privately
*Commission exposes dangerous flaws in petitions
*Electoral Officers to be named on eve of election
*Three EOs to be deployed from each geo-political zone

By JIDE AJANI

If governorship candidates in this Saturday’s election in Edo State had hoped to outdo one another based on the plethora of petitions alleging grand fraudulent plots to rig, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, deflated such overblown expectations.

At a closed door stakeholders’ meeting, on Friday, at the INEC headquarters, which lasted six hours, the INEC boss’ first shocking action was the open disclosure to all those present of the contents of the petitions the candidates had written against one another.

A competent source at the meeting told Sunday Vanguard: “One after the other, the INEC Chairman began to disclose the contents of the petitions each candidate and his party had forwarded to the electoral commission for action.

INEC Chairman, Prof Jega

“Before today’s (Friday, July 6, 2012) meeting, each of the governorship candidates had pleaded with the INEC Chairman that a private audience was needed.  Almost all of them had one thing or the other to complain about and the request for a private confidential meeting with the chairman became the order of the day. However, Prof turned down all the requests because he felt it would be inappropriate for him to hold private meetings with governorship candidates in an election he would preside over”.

“Instead”, the source continued, “what the chairman did, sequel to the first stakeholders meeting of May 18, was to request that all the candidates should put their grievances in writing in form of petition.”

Sunday Vanguard was told that on the vexed issue of Electoral Officers, EOs, it was disclosed at the meeting that the commission has already appointed two EOs from Lagos State, an ACN state, and the PDP team wanted to know why such an appointment should be made within the context of the full implications of such a move.

It was a disclosure that even shocked the INEC leadership that wanted to know how and where the leak came from.

But to this, Jega was said to have told the gathering that the EOs would be appointed from across the six geo-political zones of the country.

“The commission”, the source explained, “plans to appoint three EOs from each of the six geo-political zones in the country. In Edo State, there are 18 local government areas and three EOs from each zone come to 18.  In fact, to those who were raising the objection to the nominees from Lagos, they were told that in the South West zone, the CAN held sway, just as the zones of South South, or North Central of North West from where other EOs would be picked are zones controlled by the PDP and, therefore, the ACN, too, would not be wrong to object to such nominations – at the end of the day, the EOs would be nominated from within Nigeria”.

The nominees as EOs are all yet to be aware of their posting.

The announcement may likely be made not earlier that some 48hours to Saturday’s election.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that beyond the veiled attacks in public which the parties, specifically the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, had engaged in, the petitions sent to INEC were very damaging, dangerous and malicious.

“For instance”, according to the source, merely putting it that the “PDP alleged that the ACN was inducing youth corps members with money is an understatement. The content of the petition regarding that allegation is better imagined than stated word for word. There was also the allegation by the PDP that because two of the Electoral Officers to conduct the election at the local government level were picked from Lagos State, it means that those two coming from Lagos were going to work for an ACN victory wherever they are posted”

On the part of the ACN, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the party alleged that the leadership of PDP was involved in massive purchase of voter’s cards. In fact, the party requested that voters without cards should be availed the opportunity to vote using other means of identification.

To all these, Jega, who had “subjected all the allegations to forensic investigation, prepared specific water-tight responses to each of the allegations.

“So, at Friday’s meeting, armed with the findings that were now in black and white, the chairman handed the documents to all the candidates, thereby allowing them to have a first hand official glimpse of the allegations each had leveled against the other”.

The source said as “each of them read through the allegations and the findings made by INEC, it was obvious that it came as a rude shock”.

On the alleged bribery of youth corps members, INEC reportedly made it clear that “the money paid by the Edo State government to the corps members was the normal hazard allowance that state governments pay to youth corps members and that it was a legitimate allowance and not a bribe”.

However, the PDP team, at the meeting, wanted to know why INEC could not employ the services of corps members from states other than Edo?

At this point, discussions became a bit heated. The ACN would not have any of that.

It was suggested at the meeting that civil servants may who are already in the employ of the state government may not also be a better option, just as the logistics of mobilizing youth corps members from other states would make it near impossible to use full-time INEC staff.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that “to the allegation of voter’s cards purchase, findings by  INEC revealed that ‘there was a suspicion of veracity in the claim” – this was the reference Adams Oshiomhole, the ACN governorship candidate, made, after the meeting, that INEC had confirmed that the PDP was involved in the purchase of voter’s cards.

The INEC source said: “Even at that, the mere purchase of voter’s cards does not mean the cards would be used because the chairman explained to them that the cards could not be transferred and, therefore, were of no use to those buying them”.

At that juncture, the gathering was made to understand that buying of cards does not mean it is intended for voting use; that the cards could be mopped up with a view to disenfranchising prospective voters.

To this, it was gathered that the idea of using another means of voting instrument was dropped but “this was quickly rebuffed by the commission because such an idea is very alien to the letters and spirit of Section 40 of the Electoral Act – that section stipulates that only the voter’s card can be used as an instrument for voting”.

Jega was said to have given assurances that the commission would do all within its powers to ensure the doctrine of one man one vote.

The politicians were said to have spoken very frankly.

At the end of the session, the candidates engaged in back-slapping.
The INEC source said “the commission became pleased that it appeared that the meeting had succeeded in bringing down the tension a bit”.

The election is slated for Saturday, July 14, 2012.