ABUJA – PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, declared that the embattled Prof Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, still enjoyed his absolute confidence.

President Goodluck Jonathan and Prof Attahiru Jega

This came just as he denied the allegation by Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, that he was mounting any undue pressure on the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega ahead of the nation’s general elections.

President Jonathan who also described comments credited to the presidential candidate of the CPC, as  baseless, said: “It is a further confirmation of the campaign of calumny and falsehood for which the CPC has come to be associated.”
President Jonathan who spoke to newsmen at a photo exhibition show in his honour at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja said he was confident that  Prof. Jega, still had the capacity to deliver on his mandate of credible elections to Nigerians.

The President who said that Jega had his full support and that he was optimistic that Nigeria would get it right by conducting credible, free, fair elections, noted: “Jega has my full support, the day I no longer support him I will of course raise the process of removing him.

“You know that of course, if he is no longer performing well, I will communicate to the National  Assembly to terminate his appointment. Until I do that, I am fully in his support and I know that he will do well.”

Jonathan said the postponement of last Saturday’s National Assembly elections by INEC was a clear demonstration that “the country and the electoral body is totally committed to ensure that they conduct credible elections.”

He also noted that INEC had the alternative of going ahead with the polls without the results sheets to later enter the results at the collation centres, but they declined.

Arrival of result sheets

The President said: “What arrived late was the results sheets. The results sheet could have been distributed that night to everybody or probably late in the night they could have entered the results. That would have meant that, at the polling units probably they would have taken the materials to the collation centres where they would have entered the results and that is what we are against. That is what INEC is against.

“We want to make sure that all results are entered there at the polling units and distributed to all the agents of the political parties and the candidates. So, if INEC wanted to conduct elections that could have been queried, it could have gone ahead to conduct the elections. What happened is another demonstration that the country and the electoral body is totally committed to ensure that they conduct credible elections.”

President Jonathan appealed to Nigerians not to be discouraged over the development but to see it as a sacrifice for the country, adding: “It is a sacrifice that all of us are paying. I was also in the village but I have to come back. We really regret what happened. A number of people spent money to go to their homes to vote unfortunately it was cancelled.”

Earlier, the President had commended the photo exhibitor for the sacrifice he made in going round with him to document all his campaign tour.

The exhibition displayed over fifty photographs of Jonathan during his campaign tour of the country.
The exhibitor, a former Reuters Photographer, Mr. George Esiri who also spoke on the essence of the exhibition  said he was compelled to document the photographs for posterity.

Buhari’s allegation baseless

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has  denied that he was mounting any undue pressure on the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega ahead of the nation’s general elections.
President Jonathan who also described comments credited to the presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and former military Head of State, General Muhammed Buhari, as  baseless, said: “It is a further confirmation of the campaign of calumny and falsehood for which the CPC has come to be associated.”

Director, Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Mallam Abba Dabo, said in a statement, yesterday, that as a former head of state and with his military background, the CPC presidential candidate ought to have sensed the security implication of postponing such a national assignment such as a national election.

The PCC spokesperson: “It is indeed baffling and even disturbing that a former head of state like Buhari, could not see the high security threat posed by the sudden cancellation of the National Assembly elections, and the need for the National Security Council, NSC, to meet and deliberate on crucial security matters arising from the cancellation.

“To cancel a general election midstream in such a vast and populous nation like Nigeria is fraught with high security implications. Nigerians have indeed shown the highest sense of restraint and must be commended for their patriotism.

The allegation that President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP are mounting undue pressure on INEC credited to CPC Presidential candidate General Mohammadu Buhari is completely baseless.”

On President Jonathan convening the Security Council meeting, Dabo noted: “Jega has no control over security agencies. The President as Commander_in_Chief of the Armed Forces and chief security officer of the nation, has a constitutional duty to ensure that a conducive environment is created for the election.

Electoral gains

“His convening of the Security Council meeting is, therefore,  not only in order, but appropriate. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the CPC saw this as a partisan act to be exploited for electoral gains. Since the postponement of the elections, President Goodluck Jonathan has done everything possible to strengthen INEC’s hand and authority to ensure the rescheduled elections are conducted peacefully and transparently.

“The displeasure of our party with the postponement of the election is well known by Nigerians. We believe INEC has been given all it needs by this administration to succeed and should have avoided this unfortunate incident. We are, however, looking ahead to the new dates. We call on all our supporters, party faithful to again come out en masse as they did last week to cast their votes in a peaceful manner.”