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ACN, Fashola, Tinubu Others reject Monday as new date
By Ayokunle Oloye Newsdiaryonline Sat
April 2,2011
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has rejected Monday as the
new date for the National Assembly election, which was postponed
today (Saturday) due to the late arrival of the result collation
sheet.
In a statement issued in Ilorin on Saturday by its National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also
described the bungling of the National Assembly poll as a
national calamity and an avoidable embarrassment, which will
further expose Nigeria to ridicule in the comity of nations.
It suggested that the National Assembly election should be held
on Saturday, April 9th, while the Presidential election can be
postponed to the middle of the upper week, and the
Governorship/State Assembly election can still be held on April
16th.
''We reject this unilateral decision by INEC to fix the
postponed National Assembly election for Monday. The new date
does not give us enough time to re-mobilize our agents and put
in place the necessary logistics.The only day between Saturday
and Monday is Sunday, when banks do not open. Where does he
expect us to get the funds to mobilize our agents for Monday's
election? Only the PDP can quickly mobilise such funds. So that
date cannot stand, unless Jega is working against the
opposition.
''Also, the delay in the arrival and distribution of the result
sheet is not the only thing that was wrong with the election
today (Saturday). There are many lapses on the part of INEC
which cannot be rectified between now and Monday.
For example, a voter at a polling booth in Lagos (Aboyade Cole/Manuwa
polling booth) said the Labour Party was not on the ballot that
was used there. This is an invitation to post-electoral
litigation.
''In Kwara, the number of ballot papers supplied was largely
inadequate, meaning that many voters would have been
disenfranchised if the election had not been postponed. In
several states, registered voters could not find their names on
the register. In fact,
at polling booth 004 in Amuwo Odofin in Lagos, less than 50 of
the 720 who registered there found their names. It is therefore
necessary for INEC to rectify these problems!'' ACN said.
The party said Prof. Jega should take the reports from his field
officials to know the exact problems with today's election, with
a view to rectifying them, instead of rushing to fix a new,
unrealistic date for the postponed election.
It also advised the INEC Chairman to look inwards in identifying
the reason for the bungling of the National Assembly poll,
reminding him of ACN's consistent warning that his integrity
alone will not translate to credible polls, and that the
commission still harbours
the rump of Maurice Iwu's mafia that ensured no election was
successful during his (Iwu's) tenure.
ACN said while it appreciates Prof. Jega's candour in admitting
INEC's shortcoming and took responsibility for it, that does not
mitigate the fact that Nigerians have been embarrassed and their
enthusiasm dampened by the commission's mis-step.
''For instance, if the materials were supposed to have arrived
on Thursday and they did not arrive, as Jega said, shouldn't
INEC have saved Nigerians this huge embarrassment and wastage of
scarce resources by postponing the poll, instead of cancelling
it after it has started? '' the party queried.
Meanwhile the Lagos state Governor Mr. Babatunde Fashola said
the decision by INEC to suspend the elections has inflicted very
huge disappointment on Nigerians who had hoped that the country
was been steered on the right electoral path.
“ I want to first make this most important appeal that we should
keep the peace, no matter how disappointed we are, we must
restrain ourselves, remain law abiding and all the security
agencies are implored to continue to remain vigilant and at full
alert I think we want to also examine in details, what the
root causes of this, but clearly, there is a system failure here
and the level of preparedness of this election has been called
into question.
Fashola who described the decision of INEC to hold the elections
on Monday as hasty added ,” For INEC to suggest that this
elections would hold on Monday, if they couldn’t get it right
for this long, why should they be rushing into Monday. I think
they should meet with all the political parties and I don’t see
why they can’t take the opportunity now to take one week to plan
and merge the next elections for Saturday with this one.
“ I think this is a better time to check their controls and all
their systems to ensure that we do not have another setback by
Saturday. I think the decision for Monday is rather hasty
because I listened to Professor Jega saying that people haven’t
voted, I have voted, so therefore, ballot papers are out. I
voted at about 12:20pm at my polling unit.
“ SO I think it’s also important for INEC to remain calm and
focused and get the fullest information about what caused this
failure but I want to also advice Lagosians But I think that
INEC should meet with the parties now, Monday am also told that
it’s possible that students are writing WAEC exams, so we don’t
want to disrupt their exams again because of the clear failures
that have been exhibited here, there is so many possibilities
and I urge people to collate their experiences.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate for the Lagos
west senatorial district, Senator Ganiyu Solomon told newsmen in
Lagos that he has a feeling of disappointment over the
postponement.
“ Disappointment in various areas .We are disappointed after
what we have been told about adequate preparation we still ended
up at where we are. What came up this morning is nothing but
lack of adequate preparation. Can you imagine in several
places materials, officials did not report as we speak, even
after cancelling they are still calling us that they are still
expecting material.
“ As at 1.00pm materials were not there is not issues of
some of the materials not available there were not enough
vehicles to convey INEC officials to polling units and even the
register they came up with we have list of polling units
were the register that has just about 20 percent of the names of
registered voters so when he Jega said it was because register
were not available a few minutes ago , I like you to understand
that it goes beyond that.
Harping on his ordeal before the suspension, he said “ I am a
candidate and my name in the place where I have registered since
I turned 18 years now suddenly my name was not there. In a list
of about 500 plus voters registered and they came with 153 names
as registered voters. So I don’t know what he is going to do
between now and Monday to effect those anomalies. He has just
given one reason but it goes beyond the one reason”
The former Governor of Lagos state Asiwaju Bola Tinubu blamed
the failure of INEC on the National Assembly which
he accused of
frustrating the commission by not approving their requirements
on time for the election, saying it was better to go back to the
draw board to strategize on how to conduct a credible election
rather than allowing INEC to go on with the fraudulent elections
that was marred by irregularities from the outset.
Tinubu called for the immediate resignation of the INEC chairman
and president Goodluck Jonathan said Nigerians have lost
confidence in their electoral process.
Their views were not different from that of the ordinary
Lagosians yearning for a change and fair representation through
the power of their votes .
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