2015: No gang up against Jega –Ondo REC

Ondo State Resident Electoral Com­missioner (REC), Mr. Olusegun Agbaje has dismissed as un­founded, media report that resident electoral commis­sioners were smarting for a showdown with the chair­man of the Independent Na­tional Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega.

A national daily, (not Daily Sun) had reported a purported plot to pass a vote of no con­fidence on Professor Jega by resident electoral commis­sioners.
But addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, the Ondo REC said the report was or­chestrated by politicians bent on causing confusion in the electoral body and discredit­ing its leadership ahead of the elections.
Agbaje said: “As we speak, as the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, I am not aware of any plan to pass a vote of no confidence on our Chairman, Professor Jega, by national and resident electoral commissioners as being al­leged in some quarters.
“It is the handiwork of a few lazy politicians, they just want to cause confusion in the land and with the prayers and support of all Nigerians, they will not succeed.
“Even if the national and resident electoral commission­ers are to meet today to vote on our chairman on any issue especially the 2015 general elections, I am sure he will get nothing less than 80 per cent votes in his favour because he is a team player any time any day. Nigeria is blessed to have such a man as the chairman of INEC at this point in time,” he stated.
According to him, “as a team player who knows his onions, Jega consults widely at all times on all issues. If he consults with the national electoral commissioners on any issue and he still needs additional inputs, he will quickly summon all the state RECs for further consultation as well as other stakeholders, including the leaders of the registered political parties, civil society organisations, the National Assembly, the se­curity agencies, the press and others depending on the issue involved.”
Speaking on the mock elec­tion and test running of the Card Reader Machines con­ducted in some states of the Federation at the weekend, Agbaje described the exercise as a huge success and further pleaded with the political par­ties to embrace the new tech­nology, as he noted that it was meant to eliminate all sorts of known electoral malpractices at the polls.
“There is nothing to fear about the introduction of the new technology.
“ I supervised the exercise in Lagos and we saw it all, everything went on smoothly, in fact there was a man who came from another area not covered by the test running to where we operated the card reader and his card was rejected outrightly; that is the extent people will go to discredit all what INEC is do­ing to deliver a credible elec­tion.” He further disclosed that the commission had distributed about 1,105,709 PVCs representing 74 per cent of the voting population in Ondo State.