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Iwu can’t conduct fresh polls —Yadudu, Balarabe, Rimi, others
February 9, 2008 | posted by Mobolaji Aluko (Archives)
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VANGUARD
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Iwu can’t conduct fresh polls —Yadudu, Balarabe, Rimi, others
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| Written by UMORU HENRY Abuja |
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Sunday, 10 February 2008
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Ahead of another gubernatorial election in Kogi State following the nullification of the election of Governor Ibrahim Idris, eminent lawyer, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, among others, say Professor Maurice Iwu is not fit to head the INEC that will conduct fresh elections in the country.
SINCE last April, criticisms have been trailing the conduct of the
2007 general elections with allegations that massive rigging, thuggery, ballot paper filling, killings, announcement of results before the conclusion of polls, omission of candidates’ names and political logos from the ballot papers, among others, were the order of the day.
At the centre of the election fiasco is the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC}, the body which arrogated to itself some functions that were outside the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act of 2006. To say the least, the failure of INEC has been exposed by the judiciary; that the elections were marred. From the state Houses of Assembly, to the Federal House of Representatives, gubernatorial and senatorial, the elections have been adjudged to be characterized by malpractices.
Only last week, the Court of Appeal, upheld the verdict of the tribunal which nullified the Kogi gubernatorial election. By implication, Governor Ibrahim Idris is out and a fresh election should be conducted within 90 days to fill the vacant governorship seat.
Governors of Adamawa, Enugu and Kebbi are on tenterhooks as they await the verdict of the Court of Appeal on their cases. The tribunals in their respective states had nullified their elections, necessitating the appeal. Governors of states where cases are still pending may be having sleepless nights. These states include Edo , Ekiti, Ondo, Sokoto, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Yobe, Osun and Ebonyi.
Benue State should have been one of them, but the All Nigeria Peoples Party {ANPP} candidate, Senator Daniel Saror, withdrew his case from the tribunal.
Now Governor Gabriel Suswam can sleep well. It is glaring that Benue State would have been under tension had the situation been different, given that Senate President David Mark is the only man standing following the nullification of elections of other senators from the state. The House of Representatives members in Benue State are no exception of this clean sweep of the electoral mess by INEC, thus putting in doubt the credibility of the commission in conducting fresh elections. State Houses of Assembly members have also had their elections nullified by tribunals across the country.
The question now is, should the Professor Maurice Iwu-led INEC remain as the country’s electoral umpire or be dissolved as yet another round of elections will be conducted in states where elections have been nullified? In this interview with some politicians across the county, Sunday Vanguard sought to know their feelings towards INEC and Iwu.
Former member, Federal House of Representatives and member of the defunct Constitutional Conference, Dr. Tunde Lakoju, said Iwu was long overdue for removal as chairman of the electoral body. “Honestly speaking, it is long overdue for President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to have sent Iwu’s name for replacement as chairman of INEC to the National Assembly. The people of Nigeria have lost confidence in him and the body. All the commissioners along side Iwu should be changed and that will show that Nigeria is serious on the electoral reform”, he said.
Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a politician, academia and former special adviser, legal to the late General Sani Abacha, echoed Lakoju’s sentiment. Yadudu’s words: “Quite frankly, if INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, has any decency, he should have long resigned his appointment as chairman of the commission. He has no moral justification to conduct any bye-election or any elections in Nigeria again. The government should find a way to remove him if he doesn’t resign.
The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP} caused the entire mess and he fell into it as the person the party and the government used. We all know that the elections he conducted were full of fraud. It is a pity for Nigeria , let him resign”.
Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former governor of old Kaduna State, agreed that Iwu must go. He was however pessimistic that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the National Assembly members may not have the liver to remove the electoral body’s boss, because they are products of his fraudulent polls.
“Everyone is aware that the elections were characterized by malpractices. All the elections in 2007, it was not possible to determine who the winners were; yet INEC declared the winners. INEC knew what it was doing, INEC deliberately committed treason in participating in this election rigging, it is not enough for Nigerians to ask Iwu to resign, what should be done is to suspend or remove him, and to remove him involves some constitutional technicalities which must involve the National Assembly”, Balarabe said.
He continued: “We know that the National Assembly will not remove him because it was a beneficiary of the rigging; 90% of the members benefitted from this, so they can’t do so because INEC and Obasanjo wanted them there. I will suggest that court will be the most appropriate way of removing him and pressing that a commission of inquiry be set up to look into the activities of INEC since 1999."
Matthew Urhoghide, a pharmacist cum politician and one-time gubernatorial aspirant in Edo State said, “it is obvious that Iwu is not a competent Nigerian to head the electoral commission”.
“It is one thing for a man to be at fault and ask for forgiveness, but Iwu has refused to come up to say he was wrong and that Nigerians should forgive him. He is steadfast in defending himself of the mess he did. Iwu is an impostor, he is one Nigerian who should be ashamed of himself. He squandered the country’s resources and he should be made to account for it. Iwu cannot say he does not understand the constitution. Such a man cannot be entrusted with another election in the country.”
Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, PDP stalwart and former governor of old Kano State, blamed INEC for the rash of elections nullification going on across the country. According to him, however, all that happened vis-a-vis the electoral body and the 2007 polls was instigated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Rimi said:
“INEC has not acted correctly, judiciously and in accordance with the rules and Electoral Act. A lot of pressure was put on INEC to do what they were not supposed to do especially by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who would always want to have his way at all times, who would always want to bend the rules to suit him, he has no respect for rule of law during his time and that was the crisis he pushed INEC into, you could not go to court during Obasanjo’s government. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua must be praised and commended for his rule of law posture. In the case of Kogi, it wasn’t the fault of Ibrahim Idris or Philip Salawu that the court had to nullify the election.
The fault is with INEC. INEC simply did the wrong thing by excluding the name of Abubakar Audu from the ballot paper. The problem was not like one changing a party, but that of exclusion because Obasanjo never wanted the face of someone. I praise Yar’Adua for that order that the speaker in line with the country’s constitution be sworn in. If it were during Obasanjo, that will not take place, he will interfere.
“I hail the judiciary for saving Nigeria democracy and putting the country on a constitutional path. Nigerians should pray that God should not give us leaders like Obasanjo again. We need a leader who has respect for rule of law, for the judiciary” |
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2/10/2008 1:16:46 pm |
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