Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that he is not under any pressure to resign or go on leave.
Jega gave the assurance on Monday while speaking at a town hall meeting in Abuja. He assured Nigerians that he is duty-bound to conduct free, fair and credible elections come 28th March 28 and 11th April.
“I am not under any pressure to resign,” Jega said. “The issue of terminal leave is voluntary. Why will I resign when I have a constitutional duty? Until, April 11, I have a duty. I think it is a disservice for anybody to resign at a stage there is serious assignment like the one I am doing.
He maintained that no sensible person will contemplate leaving a job when there is a duty that must be completed at hand.
“I read about the pressure on me to resign or that somebody wants to sack me in newspapers like everybody. Nobody has told me to proceed on terminal leave,” he added.
“Everybody in INEC is focused on the efforts to deliver the best elections in the history of the country.”
Jega also told the gathering that his commission is ready to conduct the elections and that the electronic card readers would be employed for verification.
He dismissed the antagonism to the arrangement as diversionary, describing such moves as a ploy to move the country backward.
He maintained that the postponement of the elections provided INEC with the opportunity to further demonstrate use of the card readers.
According to Jega, the field-testing of the devices revealed 100 per cent success. He said though the device was new, it would work well without any hindrances.
“The deployment of card readers for the elections will add value and credibility to Nigeria’s electoral process, as it guarantees prevention of electoral fraud,” he said.
“If we don’t use card readers, we will lose respect and credibility. We will be going back to old ways when alteration of results was possible.”
Asked about the distribution of permanent voter cards, Jega said about 700,000 cards are yet to be delivered.
“These cards belong to voters who registered during the continuous voters’ registration which ended in December last year,” he said.
He however assured that all the remaining cards will be delivered and available for collection latest on Saturday, barely 24 hours to deadline for collection of the cards.
Jega also defended the deployment of the military personnel for elections, saying soldiers would not be at the polling units but would only be on standby to assist when there is breakdown of law and order which the police cannot control.
He said soldiers would only be called in for help “on the invitation of the Inspector General of Police”.
“The role of each of the security agencies is to add value to the elections, but within the constitutional framework of such agency,” he said.
Over the past few weeks, there had been speculations that the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government was planning to sack Jega before the elections. President Goodluck Jonathan had also dismissed any plans to remove Jega in a presidential media chat recently.
