INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega
Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra on Friday protested in the five South-East states to demand the removal of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Atahiru Jega.
In Enugu State, the placards-carrying MASSOB members, in their hundreds, marched through major streets, chanting “Jega must go!”
They asked the Federal Government to remove Jega in order to prevent violence that might trail the general elections the INEC boss was allegedly planning to conduct in favour of the All Progressives Congress.
The group stressed that Jega was not capable of conducting free and fair polls.
Some of the protesters’ placards read, “Jega must go,” “With Jega, no election,” “Prof. Attahiru Jega must go” and “Go Jega, says MASSOB.”
The protests were held simultaneously in Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo states.
Although the protest was peaceful in Enugu, the large number of MASSOB members disrupted vehicular movement on major roads.
Policemen monitored the demonstration but as of the time of filing this report, none of the MASSOB members had been arrested.
MASSOB had first called for Jega’s sack at a news conference in Owerri last week.
At the news conference, MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, threatened to stop the conduct of the general elections in the South-East if Jega remains the head of the electoral body.
Uwazuruike, in a telephone interview on Friday, accused Jega of favouring the APC.
He said there would be bloodshed in the country if Jega was not removed for the polls.
The MASSOB leader said, “We are organising the protest against Jega because he is biased and cannot conduct a credible election for Nigerians.
“We know that he is supporting APC and if allowed to conduct the elections, he will definitely favour the party and when that happens, there will be crisis.”
Also in Abia State, MASSOB called for Jega’s sack.
The about 1,000 protesters assembled at a compound on the Bank Road Umuahia from where they marched through major streets chanting pro- Biafran songs .
They passed through Government House and visited some media houses in the city with placards bearing different inscriptions.
Addressing journalists later, the Leader of MASSOB in Abia Central Zone, Mrs. Comfort Ogbuokiri, alleged that Jega had connived with APC to rig the March 28 election in favour of the party’s presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
Another MASSOB official in the zone, Chief Peter Onyema, said, “A new person with clean records should be appointed to head INEC if the outcome of the forthcoming elections should be acceptable by all parties in the country.”
Onyema said the protest was in compliance with the directive by Uwazuruike.
He, however, called on Igbo living outside the South-East to return home before the elections to avoid being victims of post-election violence.
…more protests in Cross River, Ondo
Also, a group under the aegis of Cross River Youth Movement on Friday protested alleged plan to rig the next general elections in Cross River State.
The group called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to make the elections credible.
The over 2,000 youths stormed INEC office in Calabar to make their position known amid tight security by the police.
Their leader, Mr. Caleb Awatt, said the group was a non-violent one.
According to him, the group supports President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid and the Labour Party candidate for Cross River South Senatorial District, Senator Bassey Otu.
Awatt said, “We believe in INEC and we want the commission to conduct free and fair elections in Cross River State.
“As we speak, there are speculations that the elections will be rigged; that is why we come here today as law-abiding citizens to plead with INEC to be transparent.”
Similarly, the G-18 Initiative, an Ondo State-based pro-Goodluck Jonathan campaign movement, cautioned the electoral body against the planned use of the smart card readers for the conduct of the next elections.
Also, the Ondo State Peoples Democratic Party Stakeholders Group asked INEC to drop the idea of using the card reader in accrediting voters during the March 28 presidential election, but could use it in the April 11 governorship poll.
The National Coordinator of the G-18, Mr. Poroye Bill, told journalists in Akure that although the introduction of the card readers was well intentioned, indications from the test carried out showed that there could be serious problems during the election proper.
The Coordinator of the PDP Stakeholder Group and former Ondo State Commissioner for Information, John Mafo, said the card reader had not been effectively tested in an election.
According to Mafo, the card readers should have been tested in a governorship poll before deploying it in a presidential election.
IHUOMA CHIEDOZIE AND STEPHEN UKANDU
