Governors refuse to agree on polls date

The Governor of Ondo States, Olusegun Mimiko and his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorochas, openly disagreed on Thursday on the outcome of a seven-hour meeting by the National Council of State on whether the general elections should begin as scheduled next week or not.
But, if the Dr. Alex Ekwueme-led Southern Nige­ria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) has its way, the chief umpire of the election, Professor At­tahiru Jega, will be arrested for allegedly plotting with Northern leaders to skew the exercise in favour of the North.
The Presidential and Na­tional Assembly elections are scheduled to hold on Febru­ary 14 while those of state governors and Assembly members will be held on Feb­ruary 28. There is a disagree­ment among stakeholders on whether the election should hold as scheduled in view of the heightened security chal­lenges in some parts of the country and the failure of INEC to effectively distribute the Permanent Voters? Cards (PVCs).
Okorocha?s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) rejects any call for polls shift.
While Mimiko told State House correspondents that the Council of State had pushed to INEC, the final decision on whether the elec­tion should hold on the sched­uled days, Okorocha prompt­ly disagreed and said that the body specifically asked the commission to go-ahead with the polls.
Mimiko, Okorocha and Bala Ngilari (Adamawa) jointly briefed State House correspondents on the out­come of the meeting that lasted for over seven hours. Both Mimiko and Okorocha differed on the meeting?s res­olution.
The Ondo State Governor said that INEC had been ad­vised to take into consider­ation the benefits of inputs and perspectives of council members as they affect fears expressed by the service chiefs on security and the poor distribution of Perma­nent Voter Cards (PVCs), with a view to taking a final decision on the timetable for the election.
But he was contradicted by Okorocha, who insisted that council asked INEC to go and perform its constitutional re­sponsibility.
Okorocha said the deci­sion of NCS was informed by the briefing to the council by INEC chairman, Prof. Attahi­ru Jega, who he said reported that the electoral body was fully prepared for the polls as scheduled.
Mimiko said: ?Council of State was in a meeting close to seven hours. Essentially the state of preparedness of INEC was on the table. INEC had the benefit of input from council members and secu­rity chiefs and agencies.
?Based on the very exhaus­tive discussion and pieces of advice, INEC is constitution­ally empowered with the ba­sis of discussions to brief the nation and then the news will be communicated to you.?
Asked if there would be a shift in the date of the elec­tion as being clamoured by some people, Mimiko said:
?Like I made it absolutely clear, I am not INEC chief. INEC will appropriately brief you based on the meet­ing we just had.
?INEC is going to consult widely with stakeholders and come up with a decision that they will brief the nation soon.
?The Council of State is essentially an advisory body, Mr. President in his wisdom has invited INEC to brief us on the state of preparedness. Based on what INEC briefed and based on perceptions of council members and se­curity agencies, INEC wasproperly advised and you will hear from INEC
The Ondo governor said further: ?For any avoidance of doubt, like I said, INEC had the benefit of inputs and perspectives from council members. Issues of distribu­tion of PVC?S, card readers, the extent of piloting to en­sure that people are familiar with this, security issues, all of these were discussed.
?Issues of the fact that seven days to election, 34 per cent of Nigerians are yet to get PVCs. It was a major is­sue that was discussed, issue of preparedness of security to conduct elections nation­wide, issue of extensive pilot, the card readers which is a new technology. All of these were discussed but ultimate­ly, council being an advisory body asked INEC to take ad­vantage of the different per­spectives of Council mem­bers to take decision about the election.?
But Okorocha countered, angrily, saying: ?NCS advised INEC to go and performs its civic responsibility, which is to conduct elections. That is what we rose to agree, it was a very challenging moment, and INEC has reaffirmed sev­erally that they are ready.?
Asked if there was a de­cision as to change of date for the polls, Okorocha said: ?There is no decision as to change of date on postpone­ment at all. But the Council has asked INEC to go and perform their responsibility.
?Jega has reassured us that they are equal to the task, in-fact, they are more prepared than they were in 2011.?
The meeting recorded an unprecedented high atten­dance with all the ex-heads of government except former President Olusegun Obasan­jo, governors, the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives present.
Meanwhile, the SNPA has asked the Jega to resign his appointment with immediate effect.
The Assembly, which has former Vice President, Chief Alex Ekwueme as Co-ordi­nating chairman, Chief Ed­win Clark (leader of South-South) and Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu (leader, South West)., also demanded the postponement of the next week?s general elections
While addressing jour­nalists yesterday in Abuja through Senator Femi Okurounmu, the SNPC pushed for the immediate postponement of the Febru­ary 14 elections to allow for the re-constitution.
The Assembly equally called for the immediate ar­rest of Jega for allegedly ?criminally masterminding? the procurement of PVCs for under-aged pupils in contra­vention of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010.
It declared that in the event that the Federal Government failed to take decisive action on the issue, the group would mobilise Nigerians to make sure that there is no election in any part of the Southern Nigeria.
The Assembly alleged that Jega is in conspiracy with Northern Elders Forum with the sole desire of enthron­ing a President of Northern extraction at all cost in the February 14 Presidential election.
The Assembly said, ?We authoritatively gathered with unassailable and incon­trovertible evidence that the INEC Chairman, who was away in Lagos for an official engagement, through one of his National Commissioners that represented him, met with select leaders of the Northern Elders Forum led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi on the 20th August, 2014 where strategies and modalities for enthroning a President of Northern extraction through vote rigging were discussed and agreed upon.
?The meeting was se­quel to an earlier meeting of Northern Elders Forum held on 16th August, 2014 at Arewa house, Kaduna under the chairmanship of Ambas­sador Yusuf Maitama Sule where it was resolved that all avenues must be explored towards enthroning a Presi­dent of Northern extraction in the forthcoming 2015 elec­tions? it stated.
The Assembly alleged fur­ther that as part of the grand design, Jega agreed to create astronomical number of ad­ditional polling units in the North, over and above what is desirable, to ensure the election of a Northern Presi­dential candidate, that would emerge from party prima­ries, in the general elections.
It stressed that despite Jega?s public admission that the commission has the funds it requires to conduct the 2015 elections, ?we are aware that the Northern Elders Forum obtained and distributed 150 pieces of laptops to INEC for each of the Northern states.
?In addition, Jega report­edly directed the release of PVCs in their catchment states to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians and not necessarily to the voters themselves, a situation that culminated in some voters being in possession of two to three PVCs.
?This accounted for nearly 100 percent PVC collection rate especially in the North West states as compared with less then 50 per cent collec­tion rate in the Southern states. This is the reason why Lagos state with a sophisti­cated population of over 5.2 million has not been distrib­uted more 2.5 million PVCs?, the Assembly stated.