Afenifere Insists Jega Must Resign over Sharing of Additional Polling Units The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, on wednesday insisted that the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, must resign his appointment if he wants to maintain his stand on the distribution of the newly created 30,000 polling units. The position of the organisation was contained in the communique issued at the end of the October meeting of the group held at the residence of its National Leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure, the Ondo State capital. Reading the communique, the Ondo State Chairman of the group, Chief Korede Duyile, said if Jega refuses to resign, the federal government should relieve him of his appointment. According Duyile, there cannot be any credible election next year under Jega with the additional polling units that were distributed to favour the northern parts of the country. Specifically, Duyile stated that the result of the election would not be acceptable to majority of Nigerians if the INEC boss is allowed to conduct the election. He said: “You will recall that the southern leaders’ forum met in Abuja and decried the attempt to create the 30,000 polling centres whereby over 21,000 were allocated to the northern part of the country and just above 8,000 was allocated to the south. We feel that this will further worsen the dichotomy between the north and the south. “The meeting reiterated its last decision, calling on Prof Jega to resign his position as most voters in Yoruba land and indeed most part of Nigeria, especially in the south have lost confidence in him. “ It is clear that Prof Jega will be a curse that will affect the integrity of the election and consequently cause crisis in Nigeria. If he insists on creating the 30,000 polling centres as is being presently pursued by him,” he said. It was resolved at the meeting that the federal government must come out clearly with its recommendations on the National Conference reports to avoid and forestall the National Assembly’s tele-guiding hand or undermining reports. He said the federal government must come out clearly on the issue of local government. Duyile said the decision on local government is a typical case in point that must be resolved. He said a situation where Lagos with the population of over 15 million is having 20 local governments and Kano is having 44 local government is unacceptable. “It is therefore better for each state to decide on the number of the local governments it can run for the management of the state. Tags: Nigeria, Featured, Politics, Atta
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 06:54:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015