Civil Society Organisations under the auspices of Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group(ISDMG) and Partners for Electoral Reforms on Thursday, faulted calls by Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari should sack the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) Prof Mahmoud Yakubu with immediate effect.
In criticising the call, ISDMG argued that it would amount to a constitutional breach sacking the INEC chairman few months to the 2019 general elections.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Chima Amadi,the Group’s Executive Director said such arguments adduced by the Forum that Buhari was a Fulani man and has therefore appointed a Fulani man as an electoral umpire to tilt the election in his favour was baseless and primordial considerations capable of truncating Nigeria’s electoral process which has seen some level of progress since 1999.
Recall that members of the Southern, Middle Belt Forum, comprising eminent leaders like Chief Edwin Clark, Ayo Adebanjo, Chief John Nwodo, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Yinka Odumakin, among others met recently in Abuja where they called for the sack of the INEC Boss on allegations that there were “accumulated indications” that he(Yakubu) might rig the 2019 elections in favour of Buhari.
Besides Yakubu, the forum had also prevailed on the presidency to sack the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris over allegations of growing impunity and defiance to constituted authority.
They argued that if the IG could ignore the President’s directive to relocate to Benue state in the heat of the herdsmen-farmers crisis, he could not be trusted to guarantee a smooth electoral process.
It was gathered that the joint forum have also perfected plans to meet again on Friday, June 15 in Abuja to discuss other critical national concerns which they would want Buhari to address prior to the 2019 polls.
Amadi said, “while we don’t hold fort for the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, we are compelled to respond by stating the facts as they are and exposing the hollow claims of ethnic entrepreneurs, masquerading as leaders.
“For us, the claim that there are “accumulated indications”,suggesting that the INEC Chairman will rig the 2019 elections in favour of President Buhari is not only stupid but silly, if there are accumulated indications, they point to those successful governorship elections conducted in Bayelsa and Rivers states respectively by the same Mahmood Yakubu and won by the opposition parties”.
Ezenwa Nwagwu of Partners for Electoral Reforms noted that the same group were at the forefront of calling for Prof Attahiru Jega’s sack in the eve of the 2015 general elections, adding that it was their stock in trade whenever an election year approaches.
“The ethnic entrepreneurs are simply crying wolf where there is none, truth is the electoral reforms that our country has embarked on since 2007 make it virtually impossible for the election management body to deliver elections to a sitting President without local, national and international repercussions.
“In 2015 we witnessed how difficult it was for a sitting president to steal elections and 2019 will not be different if the opposition organises its politics in a way that it elicits the support of the electorates,”Nwagwu added.
