2011:  Do Not Expect Perfect Election--Jega

-----SAYS AYOKA WILL BE PROSECUTED

Nigerians who are hoping that the 2011 general elections will be credible, free and fair, simply because of the credibility of the person of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC], Professor Mahmud Attahiru Jega, had better start thinking differently as the INEC boss himself has confessed that the much talked about elections, may after all, not meet up to their expectation.

   Jega who fielded questions from participants at a one day workshop on ''Promoting Good Governance and Citizens Access to Public Policies'' put together for civil society organizations and professional groups in Abuja yesterday, dashed the hopes of most Nigerians who are already seeing him as a messiah, when he said they should not expect perfect elections in 2011.

According to Jega,''our concern is that Nigerians, given the confidence and goodwill that is being expressed, people are expecting a perfect election. It will not happen. I think we should prepare our minds to that ''.  The INEC Chairman added however, that his commission will do everything posible ''to substantive, remarkable improvement into the process''. He stated further that ''there may still be some isolated incidences that we may not be able to deal with but it will not be for lack of trying. We will do our best to ensure that we deal with these problems''.

   On the former INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner [REC] in Ondo State, Mrs Ayoka Adebayo who resigned from office last week, Jega said it is not yet Uhuru for her. Mrs Adebayo was the REC in Ekiti State when the Governorship re-run election was fraudulently rigged in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP's] Segun Oni.

   Jega said that under his watch, INEC now has a silent revolution going on where by all the commission's staff who conducted elections that are later voided by courts, would face prosecution. This inquisition will however not include those conducts and electoral offences were upbraided by election tribunals or law courts before the coming on board of his [Jega's] regime.

 The INEC Chairman said he prefers a silent war against the Commission's staff that failed in their duties rather than celebrate such cleansing campaign on the pages of newspapers. Hear him, ''certainly we are doing a lot but we are doing it quietly. What we have done as a new commission, we said we are not going to go back to 2007, to start investigating who has done what and to begin to penalize people''.

  ''Many of them, we declare the electoral offences they have committed and we will prosecute them. This is the way we are doing it. It is an effort of in-house cleaning and we are doing it.  It is not something that you engage in the public''.

  He added that ‘‘everybody now knows that the President Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, who was posted to Ondo State, has resigned. So it is all part of that process understanding. First of all, we rely on solid ground, we have judgments that have indicted people and depending on the level of indictment, we proceed with what to do in order to address the situation. It is better than fighting the battle on the pages of newspapers which is what Nigerians want us to do''