Nigerians may not have heard the last on the controversy over the removal or non-removal of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, ahead March 28 and April 11 general elections. Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, one of those asking for Jega’s head, on Wednesday, added that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC), do not have moral rights to oppose any move to remove the INEC chair.
Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and
New Media, Lere Olayinka, noted that “asking Jega to go on his mandatory terminal leave is not the same as sacking him; more so that his tenure would lapse in June and he is entitled to three months terminal leave.”
He recalled that it was APC that incidentally initiated the call for removal of Jega when the party, led by General Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Bola Tinubu and others, embarked on a street protest in Abuja on November 28, 2013 to call for his sack and the entire management of the electoral commission after the Anambra State governorship election, challenging it to tell Nigerians what has changed in Jega’s handling of elections ever since.
The governor said; “Nigerians must ask Buhari, Tinubu and other APC leaders, who led street protest against Jega, carrying placards with
inscriptions such as; ‘INEC not fit to conduct 2015 election,’ ‘2015, no hope with Jega,’ what has changed about Jega’s credibility.
“Has the same Jega that they said cannot conduct the 2015 elections ceased from being a bad person?
“APC lost the Anambra election and took to the streets in Abuja, calling for Jega’s head. Is the INEC boss now doing their biddings because the APC will only stand against any individual or organisation that refused to be corrupted?
“No doubt, the hullaballoo of the APC and its agents concerning Jega’s position is suspect.”
On Fayemi’s position, the governor said; “it is laughable that the same Fayemi who, as Ekiti State governor sacked the Vice Chancellor and two Deputy Vice Chancellors of the State University, as well as Chairmen and members of statutory commissions is the one sermonizing about legality or otherwise of asking Jega to proceed on terminal leave.”
Fayemi, as governor, he further alleged, sacked democratically elected Local Council chairmen and councilors, adding that he sacked the Ekiti State University Vice Chancellor, Prof Dipo Kolawole via radio announcement, and dissolved statutory boards and commissions. According to Fayose, even when Courts ruled that the former governor’s actions were illegal and unconstitutional, he refused to reinstate the sacked workers.
“Isn’t it shameful and hypocritical that the same Fayemi is the one saying his party was fighting against the move to remove Jega because it amounted to breach of the law?”, Fayose asked.
 Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, ahead March 28 and April 11 general elections. Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, one of those asking for Jega’s head, on Wednesday, added that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC), do not have moral rights to oppose any move to remove the INEC chair){kind=link}