Council of State may discuss poll shift tomorrow

The calls for the postponement of this month’s
general elections may be discussed during
Thursday’s(tomorrow) Council of State meeting
convened by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The council consists of the President, the Vice-
President, all former Presidents or ex-Heads of
State, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria, the
President of the Senate, all state governors and the
Attorney-General of the Federation.
One of the key responsibilities of the body is to
advise the President in the exercise of his powers
with respect to the Independent National Electoral
Commission, including the appointments of
members of the commission.
Proponents of the polls’ shift had hinged it on the
inability of INEC to distribute enough Permanent
Voter Cards to registered voters. The call is widely
believed to be engineered by the Presidency, which
though had denied the charge.
INEC had however insisted that there would be no
postponement of the elections.
The PUNCH however learnt from a Presidency
official in Abuja on Tuesday that the Council of
State would review the preparations for the
elections by INEC and the relevant security
agencies.
He said that information available to the
government showed that contrary to the claims by
the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the
commission was not yet ready for the elections.
For example, the official claimed that INEC only
awarded the contract for the printing of ballot
papers for the February 14 presidential election
last Monday.
He wondered how the ballot papers would be made
ready before February 14 which is the first day of
the polls.
The official said, “The truth of the matter is that if
urgent step is not taken, Prof. Jega may end up
ridiculing this country.
“Available information shows that the commission
is not set for this election contrary to Jega’s
claim.
“We learnt he actually summoned a meeting
recently with a view to postponing the election but
he is scared of the opposition who have been
kicking against such.
“This Thursday (tomorrow) meeting will definitely
review INEC’s preparations and take a stand.”
Another Presidency source also informed The
PUNCH that Jonathan might use the opportunity
provided by the meeting to garner support for the
postponement of the polls.
“The Presidency is not resting on its oars
concerning the plan to shift the elections. It is
already in talks with some members of the
council,” he said.
On what the Presidency would do if the plan fails,
he replied, “we would opt for another plan, which
is to return to the drawing board; plan a new
strategy on how to deal with our opponents.”
To underscore the importance Jonathan attaches
to the meeting, his re-election campaign rally
earlier billed to hold on Thursday in Yenagoa, the
capital of his home state, Bayelsa, has been put on
hold.
It was gathered that the rally might hold later in
the day if the meeting ended on time or be shifted
to Friday.
The PUNCH has however learnt that some of the
proponents of election postponement might have
perfected plan to ensure that Jega did not return
as INEC chairman if their plan materialises.
A week-long investigation by one of our
correspondents showed that the Presidency was
waiting patiently for INEC to yield to the pressure
before coming out with its real plan for Jega.
It was gathered that the Presidency and the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party were not ready for the
elections and believed that their chances could be
affected if the elections were held as scheduled.
Because of this, the Presidency, backed by some
hawks in the PDP, are said to be waiting for an
auspicious time to ask the INEC chairman to
proceed on terminal leave. His tenure ends on
June 9, 2015.
The PDP source said, “The plan is to discredit the
election by forcing postponement. When this is
done, sponsored people and groups would start
asking for the sack of Jega.
“At this point, the government would then say
because of this, he should proceed on terminal
leave and then ask the most senior national
commissioner to take over and conduct the
election.”
Jega’s nomination as INEC chairman followed
approval by a meeting of the Council of State.
Jonathan had said then that he had never known
Jega, a former chairman of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities.
Jega’s candidature for the job was said to have
been facilitated by a presidency top official, Hassan
Tukur, who is from Adamawa State.
Parties disagree on postponement
Indication that the 26 registered political parties
are divided over the calls for the postponement of
the elections emerged in Abuja with 16 of them
and five presidential candidates in support.
They told a news conference on Tuesday that they
would boycott the polls if their opinions were not
respected.
The parties include the United Democratic Party,
the Citizen Peoples Party, the Peoples Party of
Nigeria, the Action Alliance, the Peoples
Democratic Congress, the Labour Party; and Unity
Party of Nigeria.
Others are the Alliance for Democracy, the
Democratic Peoples Party, the New Nigerian
Peoples Party, the Peoples Party of Nigeria and the
Independent Democrat.
The five presidential candidates at the briefing were
Godson Okoye, Sam Okoye, C.O Allagoe, Tunde
Anifowose and Ganiu Galadima.
The political parties said, “We the concerned
leaders of political parties have observed some
dangerous trends, which if not checked may
negatively and adversely affect our democracy.”
The political parties premised their argument for
the postponement on security, distribution of PVCs
and people deserting their places of abode for their
villages.
Okoye, who spoke on their behalf, called on the
Federal Government to take necessary steps to
provide adequate security for Nigerians to go out
and collect their PVCs in order to be able to
exercise their civic and constitutional duty.
He called on INEC to consider shifting the date of
elections to sometime in March or April.
“We are not urging INEC to do anything that is
unlawful, illegal or unconstitutional. It is
unfortunately becoming clear by the day that most
Nigerians appear not to be ready for election but
are ready for violence,” he said.
He also flayed the United States Secretary of State,
John Kerry, for meeting with only the presidential
candidates of the APC Maj. Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari and Jonathan in Lagos.
But at a different news conference, the presidential
candidate of the United Progressive Party, Chekwas
Okorie, condemned the call for the postponement
of the elections.
Okorie described the call as a “mischievously
contrived clamour.”
He said, “The reasons given by the proponents of
the postponement that a great number of Nigerians
will be disenfranchised having not been given their
Permanent Voter Cards which will enable them to
participate in the election is a contrived reason and
to a large extent pedestrian.
“As we speak, over 80 per cent of registered voters
have received their PVCs according to latest
figures released by INEC and this may increase to
90 per cent or above after the close of distribution
of PVCs on February 8 2015, as planned by INEC.”
Meanwhile, INEC has distributed 977,727 out of the
1,494169 PVCs received by its Ondo State office.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr.
Segun Agbaje, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja
on Tuesday.
He said that the distribution of the cards to all the
Local Government Areas in the state would end on
Saturday.
Agbaje said,”We are preparing very well for the
elections as we ought to do in line with the
provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
“All non-sensitive materials would be deployed in
the LGAs before the end of the week as security
arrangements for their movement are almost
concluded.
“We received 1,494,169 PVCs out of which we have
distributed 977,727, representing 65.4 per cent,
remaining 516,442 representing 34.6 per cent.”
On other preparations for the elections, Agbaje
said, ‘‘The training of electoral officers had been
completed while that of Supervisory Presiding
Officers started on February 2 and will end on
February 4.”
According to him, the training of Presiding Officers
and Assistant Presiding Officers will be between
February 6 and 8.
He added that INEC in the state had set up an
Election Day Operations Situation Room to directly
receive complaints and enquiries from voters,
observers, journalists and the general public on the
days of the elections.
The numbers are 08142188630, 09021446492,
07055687657 and 08184765105.
Source:  punchng.com