22nd September, 2010
The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has asked Nigerians to support whatever it would take for the new INEC to deliver on the critical demand for a free and fair election in 2011.
It therefore agrees that more time be given to the new INEC to conduct credible elections in 2011, especially as it pertains to conducting a proper voters’ registration exercise for the critical election.
In a release signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party said it sees nothing wrong in asking for a little more time to conduct a free and fair election, rather than muddling through another electoral charade in 2011. The party called on Nigerians to support the fresh demand of INEC and not allow the country to be held down by time in seeking the best electoral conduct for the country in 2011.
“What we can decipher from INEC’s new demand for more time is the need to do a thorough job with the upcoming election. If that is therefore the reason, we do not see any reason why we won’t grant Jega and his INEC more time to do a credible job that will be applauded the world over. We are asking Nigerians to give Jega some little more time to conduct a free and fair election and hold him responsible for any failure and give him credit where he succeeds.
“The demand for more time has, once again, underscored the dangerous politics played by the present PDP with the tenure of the discredited former INEC chairman, who would have been sacked long ago to give a new INEC enough room to conduct a credible election. We now experience the folly in keeping an INEC leadership that roundly messed up the electoral system for too long time and empanelling a new INEC leadership on the eve of elections to do a miraculous turnaround of the horribly messed electoral system. We saw this present danger when the government and the PDP was dilly dallying on the Iwu issue and were rather shopping for time for him. We saw the present diktat coming which was why we were persistently calling for the sack of Iwu and the empanelling of a new INEC to lead the quest for a credible election in 2011.
