PRO. JEGA'S EPIC REPLY TO ORUBEBE

After PDP party agent Godsday Orubebe
created an embarrassing scene at the collation
centre in Abuja this morning, trying to disrupt
announcement of results (read here) a very
calm Jega told him;

“Mr Orubebe, you are a former
Minister of the Federal Republic
.You are a statesman in your
own right. You should be careful
about what you say or what
allegations or accusations you
make. Certainly you should be
careful about your public
conduct”

Jega’s response to Orubebe has been hailed
as mature and worthy of praise. In fact,
there’s a meaning for Jega now. ‘Jega’ –
meaning – ‘To be inexplicably chilled in the
midst of stupidity or conflict” . Prof Jega’s full
response.

“You have made two comments.
One is that you submitted a
petition which I refused to
accept. Secondly you claimed
that there was a result released
by the APC which you alleged
that we gave to them or I gave to
them. With regards to the first
point, yesterday after we took the
first batch of results in this hall
and as we declared a recess until
4pm, as I was walking down
back to the office, my PA came to
me and said that here are some
papers that Dr Bello Fadile, a
representative of the PDP said
that he should collect it; that I
said Dr Fadile should give him
those papers. I told him that I
didn’t tell Dr Fadile to give any
papers to you. Return them to
him because Dr Fadile, after we
declared for recess came on to
this platform. As a party agent,
he is not supposed to do that
and gave some documents to my
PA who is writing results here.
and I am sure some of the agents
and some of the pressmen may
have seen that and I told my PA
to take back those documents to
him. If he told you I told him to
give you any documents, I did
not. Take them back to him,
Subsequently, Dr Fadile sent me
a text message saying that there
are petitions and that he wants to
submit them. I told him we don’t
collect petitions on the platform
when we are declaring results
and then he said I should have
left my office open so that they
can submit those petitions in my
office. I told him our secretary,
the secretary to the commission
is not anywhere in this hall. She
is in her office and that her
business is to receive
communication. If they are
important enough, she would
bring them to me here. I have
started collation. I cannot be
receiving petition in this hall or in
this platform. And when I replied
that text message, he replied
again and said Okay, he will see
what he can do. I interpreted the
text as he was going to take that
petition or whatever document he
has to the secretary of the
commission. As I speak with you
now, I have not received anything
from the secretary to the
commission. That is regards to
the issue of the so called
petition.

Regarding results published by
APC on its website, I do not give
results to anybody. The results
were announced formally as INEC
are results declared here. And we
have warned everybody to be
careful and to ensure that the do
not declare results which we
have not officially announced. So
as far as I am concerned I have
not seen any results. I have not
given anybody any results. So
for you to even engage me on
that issue I think frankly that is
not fair to me. I have not seen
the results. How can I speak on
something that I have not seen.
So please let us be careful of
what we say or do so that we do
not disrupt a process that has
ended peacefully and in a matter
of hours we would be able to
finish it.”.