Southern elders said yesterday after an emergency meeting that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega has lost his credibility.
They called for his removal, saying he was biased in proposing new polling units.
The elders, under the umbrella of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, queried the rationale behind increasing polling centres when the number of registered voters had reduced from 70 million to 57 million.
The group, however, refused to disclose its next line of action.
It comprises elders from the three zones in the South.
The group said: “As plausible as these reasons may sound to the architects of this voodoo and arbitrary allocation of polling units, the people of Southern Nigeria and indeed the Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly view this invidious act as a script crafted for Prof. Jega to implement, in continuation of the well known hegemonic agenda, by the enemies of our hard-won democracy.
“The people of Southern Nigeria are not only appalled, but also strongly reject Prof. Jega’s claims and averment, whatever persuasions may have motivated this callous, insensitive, disparate, oppressive and inconsonant decision to give the North a clear political advantage over the South, contrary to the reality on ground.
“If this concocted manipulation of polling units is his clever design to give undue political advantage to the North, having in mind the 2015 presidential election, we wish to remind him that he has failed in his decrepit mission.
“May we remind him that he has lost his credibility, if there was indeed any, and he has lost the trust, confidence and respect of Nigerians. We do not need the lenses of prophets to remind Prof. Jega that he is spending overtime on the INEC chair, having shown his tendencies for ethnic bigotry, partisan parochialism and primordial chauvinism.”
But Jega defended his integrity yesterday in Abuja, saying he is not a religious or ethnic jingoist. The need factor, rather than political factor, he stressed, necessitated the planned distribution of the polling units.
Jega noted that the criticisms were unjustified, as the initiative was aimed at developing the country.
The INEC boss told reporters at a news briefing that the new units would not give political advantage to anybody or group.
He said the people to benefit from the new polling booths were the electorate, as the idea would aid voting.
Jega said the commission was yet to create the polling units, adding that it was only the framework and guideline to facilitate it that had been approved.
He stressed that additional polling centres must be created to ensure that the coming general elections were conducted in a conducive atmosphere, to ensure a free and fair poll.
The INEC chief dismissed a criticism, which had been on an alleged conspiracy theory, aimed at foisting the dominance of one section of the country on the others, for political advantage.
He faulted the critics for focusing on the planned polling units rather than considering the distribution of the 150,000 polling units.
Jega said with the current 120,000 polling units, some states had more polling centres than they should have.
He noted that it was regrettable that people viewed every national action with suspicion.
“INEC’s decision to re-configure the structure of polling units and create additional ones is driven by our collective aspirations as Nigerians to reform and improve upon the electoral process for free, fair, peaceful and credible elections next year and beyond. There is no sectional or parochial agenda in this decision and there will never be any such agenda under this commission.
“They know my antecedents. I am not a religious jingoist. It is only those who do not want progress, who are accusing us. Nigeria must move forward. We must not allow our fear to imprison us,” Jega said.
