BY HENRY UMORU
THE Leadership of the National Conference has disowned Chief Okon Osung, a delegate representing the South-South geo- political zone, for calling on the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to postpone the 2015 general elections by at least 18 months.

In a statement by the Assistant Secretary, Media and Communication, Akpandem James, the Conference said Osung neither spoke as a delegate nor as a representative of the August body.

“The views expressed by Chief Okon Osung regarding tenure extension for any elected official based on any reasons cited by him, are entirely personal to him and must not be viewed or regarded to, in any way, have any anything whatsoever to do with the National Conference or any of its committees,” he said.

Tenure extension
Akpandem said the views  Osung’s personal views because they were never expressed on the floor of the Conference; it was never heard, debated or discussed in any manner whatsoever in any of the committees whose reports are already with the management of the Conference; the leadership and other 491 members of the conference only read about them in the media just as members of the public; Osung did not submit the position to any of the 20 committees; and tenure extension for any elected official is not part of the terms of reference.

Noting that the nation’s democracy must be preserved, he added: “Neither President Goodluck Jonathan nor any of his associates or aides within or outside the Conference circle has made any representation directly or indirectly or has spoken to any member of leadership or delegate to the Conference on the issue canvassed by Delegate Okon Osung.

”Therefore, we are inclined to believe that Chief Okon Osung is acting on personal conviction or interest and is not, to the best of our knowledge, representative of any group participating in the National Conference. The only relationship Chief Okon Osung has with the National Conference is that he is one of the 492 delegates. Whatever views he is canvassing in this regard should be seen and regarded as purely his personal opinion which has absolutely nothing to do with the Conference.”

Osung at a press briefing on Sunday called for the postponement of the election to save the nation’s democracy, adding that with the insecurity challenges with Boko Haram engaging in massive killings of people and wanton destruction of property in some parts of the country as well as cases of kidnapping, holding elections February next year was no longer feasible.

“At this crucial juncture in our national history, a Presidential or National Assembly declaration of a politico-administrative moratorium or cooling-off period before the conduct of the third Transitional Elections scheduled for February 2015 has become an imperative necessity.

This calls for a postponement of the or deferment of the scheduled 2015 elections by at least 18 months while retaining all the democratic institutions at all levels of governance and across the entire spectrum of the country’s political divide, without any bias to the statutory termination dates of such democratic institutions,” he canvassed.