More facts have emerged from the meeting between the embattled national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, and members of the National Security Council presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday night. At the meeting, LEADERSHIP gathered, heads of national security units condemned the INEC boss for “almost throwing the nation into security problems” as a result of his failure to take “simple security advice” from them. In particular, the national security adviser, Lt. General Andrew Oweye Azazi, was said to have tongue–lashed Jega for not doing the right thing at the right time.
“You told everybody that the materials would arrive on Friday midnight and when you failed to take delivery of the materials which you needed for the election, did you inform the president or anybody? INEC chairman my foot”, the NSA was said to have told Jega in an angry tone.

According to a source, the NSA told Jega that while the president, international community and the entire nation were committed to free, fair and credible elections, INEC should do everything within its power not to disappoint the people. Azazi was quoted as telling Jega that the electoral commission is one out of thousands of institutions and other stakeholders that were driving the democratic process and Jega should not see his responsibility as so special that he could not take genuine advice that borders on national security.

Apparently embarrassed by the NSA’s comment, Jega at a point reportedly told the meeting that if the security council no longer had confidence in him, he would elect to resign his appointment.

But the minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, was said to have angrily told him that it would amount to treason if he attempted to resign.

President Jonathan, who was said to have remained calm throughout the meeting, later summed up the meeting by advising Jega to go back to the drawing board and ensure that all the mistakes were corrected.

Meanwhile, the electoral commission said yesterday that it had forwarded the name of the defaulting contractor, which failed to deliver sensitive electoral materials that halted last Saturday’s National Assembly elections, to security agencies and that very soon the name of the contractor would be revealed to Nigerians.

The commission added that it followed the due processes in awarding the contract, and that the capability of the contractor was ascertained.

INEC spoke through its spokesperson, Nick Dazang, on the BBC Hausa Service monitored in Kaduna .

According to him, “We are still waiting and we have submitted the contractor’s name to security agencies. Many people have been asking us to reveal the identity of the contractor. And very soon it will be made known to Nigerians.”

On the allegation that the materials were hoarded, he further added: “It is not true that the sensitive materials arrived since and were hoarded for mischievous reasons; What happened was that the contractor simply failed us, and the materials were not handy, hence we took the action we took. The contractor did not make the supply in time and we cannot circulate materials that did not arrive.”

Meanwhile, the commission has retrieved the electoral materials that were distributed for the botched National Assembly polls in Kaduna.

The INEC administrative secretary in the state, Alhaji Musa Adamu, said in Kaduna on Monday that all the sensitive and non-sensitive materials had been recovered from the local government areas.

Adamu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that INEC was taking stock ``to ascertain what had either been used or lost’’ during the aborted poll and to get them replenished.

He said that the commission and its staff were on top of the situation, and gave the assurance that ``a credible poll will be conducted with the cooperation of the political parties, candidates, supporters and observers’’.

Adamu said that it was untrue that the commission’s office at Anchau in Kubau local government area was burnt down because of the postponed election.

The commissioner said the electoral officer and security agencies in the area confirmed separately that the information was a rumour without any iota of truth.

“INEC holds security meeting every morning and evening before closing for the day to be abreast of developments in the state and this incident was not captured as a real or isolated case,’’ he explained.

Adamu said that the major speculator of the dangerous information was the journalist who reported it and who is now helping security organisations in their investigations.

He advised the people to stop peddling dangerous rumours capable of threatening the country’s peace and democratic process.

Adamu renewed the resolve of the commission to conduct a free, fair, credible and acceptable poll, saying ``we must get it right this time’’.

Meanwhile, the last has not been heard of Saturday’s shocking postponement of the scheduled National Assembly polls. Jega has reportedly approved an in-house investigation to unravel the circumstances that led to the national embarrassment.

All resident electoral commissioners (RECs) across the country have been summoned to an emergency meeting with top officials of the commission at its headquarters in Abuja. Today’s meeting is not unconnected with widespread logistic glitches -- especially transport -- that marred the botched National Assembly polls initially scheduled for April 2.

In a meeting that dragged on late into the evening yesterday, Jega met behind closed-doors with all his national commissioners.

According to a source in the commission, the investigation is primarily directed at the logistics department which apparently misled the INEC chairman on its readiness for the postponed ballots.

In the aftermath of the postponed polls, reports of likely sabotage as a reason for the late supply of the election materials are becoming rife.

“The probe is with a view to unravel what led to the late supply of the sensitive election materials despite assurances of timely delivery from both the ‘vendor’ and the logistics department”, the source preferring to be anonymous, disclosed.

The INEC chairman has reported the breach of contract by the vendor to security agencies for action.

Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and President Goodluck Jonathan of exerting undue pressure on Jega to resign or manipulate the forthcoming elections in their favour.

In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday, Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman of CPC’s presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), said that emerging pieces of evidence have shown that the National Assembly elections were postponed because of PDP and Jonathan’s ‘vested interests to manipulate the outcome of the elections’.

He said, “We had hitherto believed that the National Assembly elections that had to be aborted and postponed in the middle of voting was because of non availability of critical materials as announced by Prof Jega.

“However, we now have reasons to believe that covert as well as overt pressures are being exerted by President Goodluck Jonathan, the ruling PDP and their agents because of their vested interests in manipulating the outcome of the elections.

“The pressures were so strong that the INEC chairman succumbed and agreed not to combine the National Assembly elections with that of the presidential elections as has since been publicly announced by INEC. He, however, refused to constitute a taskforce and change the accreditation procedure as demanded and offered to resign instead,” the statement added.

However, Odumakin warned that any attempt to force Jega out of INEC as being planned will spell doom for democracy in Nigeria.

“For these and many more reasons we strongly urge President Jonathan and the ruling PDP to cease and desist from any further covert and overt interference in the way and manner in which the elections are conducted by INEC; not only in the interest of free, fair and credible elections that President Jonathan has promised Nigerians and the world at large but also in the interest of peace and stability of our country,” the statement concluded.

http://www.leadershipeditors.com/ns/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28435:you-misled-us-nsa-tells-jega&catid=51:cover-stories&Itemid=142

Stupid NSA should sharrap and go and unravel the bomb blasts in Jos, Bauchi, Abuja, and Bayelsa, what is his business with Jega, Dumb man, like Oga like NSA. His own job that he did not do well who has queried him , nonesense man

NSA leave Jega and go and do your own work. Do you even know the meaning of NSA?

debrief08:

silly NSA should sharrap and go and unravel the bomb blasts in Jos, Bauchi, Abuja, and Bayelsa, what is his business with Jega, Dumb man, like Oga like NSA. His own job that he did not do well who has queried him , nonesense man

Well said!

debrief08:

NSA should sharrap and go and unravel the bomb blasts in Jos, Bauchi, Abuja, and Bayelsa, what is his business with Jega, His own job that he did not do well who has queried him.

Gbam!