Cancellation Of Polls: Saboteurs Are At Work -Keyamo

Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Keyamo described the cancellation of the National Assembly elections as “sad and disappointing”, but nevertheless said postponing the election is the best decision by INEC under the circumstances in which it has found itself.

Keyamo  noted that the cancellation of the election “has spread a sense of disillusionment across the country and it has shaken the confidence of not a few people in the ability of Prof. Attahiru Jega to effectively take charge of all the goings-on in INEC”.

He however described the cancellation as a well orchestrated sabotage perpetrated by those who want to rig the elections by all means.

“In the past, it has been under the guise of problems of logistics that all kinds of electoral malpractices are perpetrated: we saw situations where results were announced when no election took place; we saw materials arrive, in some cases, in the evening and voting continued late into the night under candle lights or torch lights which gave room for all kinds of manipulations; we saw ballot boxes with full ballot papers already thumb-printed arrive late at polling units long after voters had gone home out of frustration.

“Therefore, one of the recipes for rigging is the problems of logistics leading to the late arrival or non arrival of materials.

“It is in the light of the above that I cannot rule out sabotage by those who are bent on rigging the elections in creating situations which has resulted in the problem of logistics.

“I am therefore taking the reasons given by Prof. Jega with a pinch of salt.

“It is clear that those around Jega who should coordinate logistics, and who had done so in the past, and who continued to assure Jega that everything was fine till the eleventh hour are working hand-in-hand with certain elements to truncate the process. We hope that this will serve as a reality check to Prof. Attahiru Jega and his INEC.

“What is clear from this situation is that Prof. Jega has grossly underestimated the enormity of the work with which he is faced. The problem of logistics in the distribution of INEC materials on election days has been a recurring problem since 1999.

“Even as the 2011 approached, Jega continued to assure the nation that, with hindsight, this perennial problem would be adequately addressed.

“But alas, we now know better. Those who were assuring him were actually deceiving him.

But whilst Prof. Jega must accept this stick from us for this setback, we must commend him for the courage and humility to accept the blame and to quickly save the situation by canceling the entire exercise.

“That was the best decision under the circumstance.

“Under Prof. Maurice Iwu, it is under the same circumstance that results were announced where no voting took place and winners were declared – situations that Prof. Iwu also defended with so much vigour.

“In this case, instead of defending the indefensible, Prof. Jega decided to eat his humble pie.

“What is left is for all of us to still cooperate with INEC and ensure that we turn out en masse on Monday, April 4, 2011 to vote for those of our choice.

By Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja