Much trouble about Osun REC Aregbesola, Akeju and Omisore. As the August 9 Osun State governorship election approaches, the months-long controversy between the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress over the suitability or otherwise of the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rufus Akeju, came to a head when the Independent National Electoral Commission sent him on a compulsory leave. It is exactly 26 days before all eyes will focus on Osun State. As the D-Day approaches, ear-tingling allegations of conspiracy to rig the August 9 governorship election in the state have taken over the air-waves and printed pages. A primary talking point in the build-up to the election is the Independent National Electoral Commission’s substantive Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ambassador Rufus Akeju. The All Progressives Congress wanted him to remain as the electoral commissioner to conduct the state election, but the Peoples Democratic Party did not want him to do so. Earlier in the year, the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, had to live with the PDP’s vituperations as they demanded that another REC should oversee the governorship election. The Chairman of the PDP in the state, Gani Olaoluwa, had said on numerous occasions that Akeju could not conduct a free and fair governorship election, adding that the REC was a former employee of a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu. Thus, he was considered to have a bias for the APC. The opposition against Akeju had always been aggressive. During a stakeholders meeting, which Jega held with representatives of the various political parties in February, some of the opposition parties walked out as Jega challenged them to provide evidence that the REC was an protégé of Tinubu. The governorship candidate of the PDP, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who is seeking to be the next governor in Osun, was also a vocal opponent of the REC. Omisore, who is a former deputy governor of the state, and other opposition political leaders in the state, wanted Akeju to be removed for there to be a credible poll on August 9. The PDP also argued that a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, the state capital, in 2011 restrained the REC from conducting the legislative elections in the state. To the PDP, the REC’s stay in the office was a violation of the court order. But the Director of Publicity and Strategy of the APC, Kunle Oyatomi, dismissed the PDP and its candidate. The APC spokesperson said there was no judgment that pronounced the REC unfit to conduct elections in the state. He challenged the PDP governorship candidate to publish the said court judgment if truly there was any, or keep quiet if he couldn’t publish it. The APC spokesperson claimed the PDP and its governorship candidate resorted to blackmailing Akeju because, according to Oyatomi, Akeju had refused to be bought over by the opposition party. He added that the PDP wanted him removed so that they could have a REC who would be ready to manipulate the election process in their favour. Commenting on the conflict in the state, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Covenant University, Dr. Oluremi Abimbola, argued that since there was no evidence of bias against Akeju, he should be retained. The university don maintained that Jega had challenged those against the REC to provide evidence against him but none of them had been able to produce any. According to him, redeployment of Akeju should not be at the discretion of any political party. He said, “The call for the removal of the Osun REC is diversionary and capable of distracting INEC from giving the people an election everybody will be proud of. “The call is a strategy of self-handicapping, wherein ready excuses for failure are advanced even before the failure. It may be the intention of the clamourers to want to attribute their impending failure to an external entity. Politicians should learn to take responsibility for either failure or success in elections rather than engaging in external attribution. “INEC, as an independent body, has the internal mechanism for managing its affairs and should, therefore, be left alone to face its statutory responsibilities rather than being bogged with mundane issue of transfer of a REC.” But the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilesa branch, Olayinka Sokoya, had urged the INEC to deploy another REC to conduct the election. According to him, the PDP did not mean that the REC was guilty. He reasoned that engaging a non-controversial person would appease the aggrieved party and make everybody to believe the commission had no sympathy for any party involved in the matter. He said, “There are, at least, two parties in this; one is clamouring for the REC’s removal, while the other sees nothing wrong in allowing the REC to conduct the poll. In my opinion, INEC should bring in a new REC to conduct the poll so that the PDP and others who are against the REC would not have to blame the INEC in case they lose at the election.” On July 3, the INEC announced that Akeju had been asked to “proceed on leave of absence – for his own safety.” According to a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, on behalf of the commission, Akeju had not been removed; rather, his leave was “his contribution towards ensuring the credibility of the state governorship election scheduled for August 9, 2014.” The statement partly read, “He has not been indicted for any offence and the appeal by INEC for a stay of execution of the interlocutory order restraining the commission from recognising him as Osun REC still subsists. “For avoidance of doubt, Ambassador Rufus Akeju remains INEC’s substantive REC for Osun State, but another REC will hold the fort for the period that Akeju will be away on his leave of absence.” Following this, on July 1, a new REC, Olusegun Agbaje, was appointed for the state ahead of the governorship election. This has not gone down well with the APC as it accused the INEC’s replacing of the substantive REC as bowing to pressure from the Presidency to allow the PDP rig the governorship election. The ruling party insisted that the PDP was not comfortable with Akeju because of his refusal to be manipulated and that the party used the Presidency to replace him. The party claimed that the replacement had shown Jega as unreliable, adding that he allowed himself to be coerced to do PDP’s bidding. “Jega now has a responsibility to tell Nigerians what convinced him now, few weeks before the election, that Akeju was compromised. It tells a lot about INEC’s unreliability because Jega could not stand his grounds under pressure from the Presidency,” APC’s spokesperson said. According to Omisore’s media aide, Diran Odeyemi, the APC has been defending Akeju because he is the party’s ally and the party needs him to manipulate the election. Odeyemi said, “Senator Iyiola Omisore and the PDP had nothing personal against Akeju. What we were saying then was that since the court has restrained Akeju from conducting election in Osun State, he should be redeployed. “All what we are asking is that the election should be credible. Is it not curious that the APC had become the mouthpiece of Akeju? That would show you that they are up to something.” Some political observers however feel that the hue and cry over retaining or replacing the electoral commissioner in Osun is mere politicking. A political analyst and lecturer at the Sociology Department of University of Ibadan, Dr. Tade Oludayo, reasoned that political accusations and counter accusations are stock-in-trade among Nigerian politicians. According to him, it is one of those tricks used when elections draw nearer. “This is why most of them raise the alarm against Resident Electoral Commissioners. Only the incumbent are comfortable with the sitting REC while parties aspiring to come to power allege conspiracy or become uncomfortable, not because they want fairness but because unlike the incumbent governor, they have found the REC impenetrable from their side. “However, whether alarms are raised or not, it is in the interest of fairness and justice and impartiality that change should be effected once allegation of bias has been put forward and claims established. We should note that police commissioners are also redeployed because most of them are in the pockets of chief executives. Our politicians are insincere,” Oludayo stated. He added, “How many of them raise the alarm when they have control over a state as governor during the conduct of local government elections which they always win? Why is APC crying with the redeployment? When will our politicians stop sponsoring protests? “The safety of the removed or redeployed REC should be more important to us. Although, there is no smoke without fire, it is now difficult to rig against the position of electorate. You only rig where you are popular. Contenders in the Osun August 9 should canvass for the votes of the electorate and allow INEC to do its work as the umpire. You need people to vote not the REC. Alarms are distractions and may be costly at this time. Other political watchers think otherwise. A University of Ibadan don at the Department of Political Science, Dr. Idowu Johnson, said there might be more to the replacement than meets the eye. “If INEC had replaced the Osun REC because of pleasing the PDP in that state, then Jega would have set a dangerous precedence for future election. “I’m suspicious of INEC. The INEC of today isn’t the same electoral commission of two years ago. It appears there’s a planned agenda to tilt the conduct of the coming election in Osun in favour of the PDP. I don’t trust INEC to conduct a credible election anymore,” Johnson said. Copyright PUNCH.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 04:48:29 +0000
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