Former Anambra State governor, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has raised the alarm that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been hijacked by the North to actualize its unhidden agenda to takeover power in 2015.
He premised the plot on the proposed review of polling units’ distribution chart in favour of the North and the attendant arrogance and overflowing confidence of leading politicians in the region ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
This is the first time in history that the nation’s electoral umpire is headed by a Northerner. Ezeife, who spoke to Sunday Sun via electronic means yesterday, deplored the distribution of polling units by INEC, describing it as “shocking and a blatant rigging design with impunity”. He decried the imperial statements of Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and his Jigawa State counterpart, Sule Lamido, saying they speak as people who have background information.
He said: “In that distribution, North West has more than 7000 units, the Southeast is given about the same number of polling units as Abuja, the Federal Capital – just a little more than 1000 units.
“The new distribution of polling units correlates negatively or inversely with the distribution of votes for Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election. The Southeast is considered as Mr. President’s strongest support base.”
Ezeife further revealed an impending plan by INEC to “clean up the voters” register, which is alleged to have resulted in wiping off more than half of Southeast voters.
He raised some posers: “In view of published distribution of polling units, doubt about the truth of this “clean up” is weakened. Is there a grand plan to rig the 2015 elections? Can it explain the indication of strong but very surprising confidence oozing out from the statements of some Northern politicians, where ordinary political calculations and common sense will suggest total absence of hope? Does it give a clue to the attempt on Buhari’s life?”
Ezeife expressed optimism that the design will fail. He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to push for the confirmation of the report of the just concluded National Conference, which has provided a framework for a new Nigeria in which all the groups in Nigeria can maximize their true interests.
He suggested that the affirmation of the National Conference reports should take precedence over the 2015 elections.
Ezeife further submitted that the new Nigeria envisaged by the National Conference will accommodate the interests of all.
While explaining the willingness of the South East geo-political entity to adapt in a united, progressive and non-oppressive Nigeria, he said it will not “object to peaceful disengagement and possible regrouping. Concluding, he described Jonathan as a tool in the hands of God, who has demonstrated a huge deficiency in the archetypal manipulative instincts of the Nigerian politician. “A little deep thinking can reveal the hands of God in the affairs of Nigeria “he said. The Sun
