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The Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), in Akwa Ibom State is advocating for
violence-free presidential elections devoid of political, ethnic,
religious or any other form of sentimental colouration that may plague
the election.

The group, which
is advocating that the people of the state and the South-South
geopolitical zone support the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan
by voting him back as president on Saturday, appealed to the electorate
to make their conscience their guide at the polls.

State chairman of
the CNPP, Prince Udofia in a statement in Uyo yesterday, encouraged
voters not to relent in their efforts at ensuring that the remaining
elections were conducted successfully.

Cautioning against
the attitude of making the elections a do-or-die affair, Udofia said,
“the conference appeals to all Akwa Ibom people, South-South
geopolitical zone and Nigerians that they should shun all political,
ethnic or religious sentiments in all its ramifications.

“That they should
vote for good performance, transformation and good governance in
Nigeria, and conduct themselves in a more proper and matured manner. So
the presidential election should be devoid of violence, political
sentiment and rancour.” The group also called on the electorate to
ensure that their votes protected.

The group’s call is coming on the heels of the ethnic tension that
has built up, especially among the Annang and the Ibibio where the
state governor and PDP governorship candidate, Godswill Akpabio and his
ACN counterpart, John Akpanudoedehe, hail from respectively.

It was a bad day
for the Labour Party in Oyo State on Thursday, as its candidate for the
office of deputy governor in the next election, Samuel Adejumobi,
dumped the party for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Mr Adejumobi is
the majority leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly and was elected
to the house on the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

He led a group of
ten members of the legislative arm last year to seek the removal of
Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, over alleged misappropriation of the
state’s funds. The attempt led to violence in the house, in which some
members of his group were wounded and were all later suspended.

Despite a court
order directing that they are re-absorbed and the arrears of their
entitlement paid them, the lawmakers are still being barred from
discharging their duties and the money is still not paid.

He, however hinged
his decision to join the ACN on the party’s showing in the last
parliamentary elections and consultation with “family, friends, opinion
leaders, students, market women and many other stakeholders”.

Stepping down

Mr Adejumobi
defected to the party along with six other colleagues at the state
assembly who were denied payment of their entitlements. These include
Kazeem Ayilara (deputy speaker), Mohammed Inakoju (chairman, house
parliamentary caucus), Michael Okunlade, Abiola Ayorinde, Tijani
Ademola Razak and Kayode Anumashaun.

Mr Ayilara, who is
contesting the seat in the Ibadan South West/Ibadan North West
constituency on the platform of Labour Party, has also offered to dump
his ambition and join the ACN.

Mr Adejumobi said
all other colleagues seeking to return to the state legislature on any
other platform other than the ACN, will step down for the contestants
in their new party. He said the state needed a new leader who will save
it from the backwardness the incumbent governor is leading it to.

“The results show that the ACN has the highest number of votes at
332,027 votes and careful analysis of the results show that the party
also has the widest spread in all the geo-political zones of Oyo
State,” he said while positing that Abiola Ajimobi, the ACN
governorship candidate, is better positioned to lead the state.

Five days after the
National Assembly elections, the Independent National Electoral
Commission has yet to release the official comprehensive results for
the polls, breaching its self-imposed deadline of 48 hours. Ahead of
the polls last Saturday, the commission announced it will push for a
prompt release of the total results within two days after balloting, as
part of a series of measures to shore up its commitment to the
transparency of the exercise before Nigerians.

In the commission’s
reckoning, a well-conducted election would remove delays with the
results and also curtail the propensity of multiple litigations that
have weighed on the outcome of past nationwide polls.

Yet, the complete
results have remained unreleased 120 hours after, and 24 hours to the
second in a series of national elections.

Officials have
struggled to justify the delay which has continued even after Tuesday’s
meeting between the commission’s leadership and the 37 Resident
Electoral Commissioners. They argue that though the results had not
been centrally released within 48 hours, they were announced at the
state level before 24 hours.

INEC is investigating

At Wednesday’s
media briefing, the Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said: “What is worth doing
is worth doing well. We do not want to make mistakes,” he remarked to a
question posed after the main telecast interview. He said with the
number of petitions and complaints from politicians reaching his
office, the commission chose to verify some claims-for instance, the
Anambra senate tussle between Dora Akunyili and Chris Ngige- before
making a final declaration.

Despite a near
certain prospect that whatever results is posted by the electoral body
will be contested in court as many aggrieved candidates have indicated,
he said the commission should better be certain of its result before
certifying one.

He assured that the
results should be uploaded to the commissions’ website on Thursday.
However, as of 6 pm yesterday, the document was yet to be placed on the
web.

Emmanuel Umenger,
the commission’s Director for Public Affairs said many of the states
had yet to fully transmit their results to the commission assuring that
the electoral body would not delay in making that public as soon as
they are received.

“It is a public
document and they will be made public,” he said yesterday. Mr Jega’s
spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, said the 48 hours earlier announced by the
commission was not to be regarded as a “dogma” but rather as a
guideline to result release.

Meanwhile, the
commission has reassured the last Saturday’ mode of voters
accreditation, which some international observers and political parties
say is rigorous, would not be suspended during the presidential
election tomorrow.

Modified open ballot continues

Mr Jega told a
delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to
Nigeria, that the Modified Open Ballot System will not be jettisoned.

He said since the
prevalent national mood was that the commission must not fail, it would
be unwise to adopt a new voting strategy midway into the general
elections. “In the meeting that we had on Tuesday, we paid a lot of
attention to strengthening the accreditation system, making it more
efficient, and also the voting procedure.

“With time when we
restore sufficient credibility to the process, then we can begin to
look at other ways of ensuring a more convenient procedure. But for
now, we will make do with the Open Modified Ballot System,” he said.

On preparations for Saturday, he said the needed materials are
already on the ground and have been distributed to the states and from
the reports we are getting, in many of the states, deployment to
far-flung corners had already commenced.”

The insistence of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to produce the vice president was
responsible for the failure of the party’s planned alliance with the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the party’s presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has said.

Mr. Buhari noted that with only a few days to the election, it was foolhardy to change his party’s vice presidential candidate.

“By the electoral
laws, this was virtually impossible before this election. We suggested
that they should let us jointly go into the elections and jointly form
the government after our victory. But our friends were not ready to
take us on our honour and went to the media,” he said.

In a statement
signed by Mr. Buhari’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, the former head of
state said the notion that he was responsible for the inability of his
party and the ACN to forge an alliance ahead of Saturday’s polls was
“baseless and unfounded.”

He said he was
responding to set the record straight and regretted the inability of
the parties to harness what he called their electoral fortunes.

Not exactly

The ACN, on the
other hand, continues to blame Mr. Buhari for the missed opportunity. A
source at the meeting said the CPC vice presidential candidate, Tunde
Bakare, had behaved in a manner that suggested that he had no intention
to honour the accord.

“We are aware of
the electoral act. We did not say they should change their ticket now,
but after the election,” says an ACN senior official.

NEXT learnt that
although Mr. Bakare agreed to resign after the election, and even to
write the resignation letter, he chose to address such a letter in a
manner that gives him wiggle room.

“It was not a
resignation as vice president but a letter addressed to the chairman of
the board of trustees of his party offering to resign anytime Buhari is
no longer happy with him, which left the room open, as the ACN guys saw
it, for not resigning at all,” said the source.

‘Nigeria is my client’

People have
wondered why, in selecting an ACN candidate to be Mr. Buhari’s vice
president, Bola Tinubu did not deemed it fit to name his party’s vice
presidential candidate, Fola Adeola.

Instead, Mr. Tinubu
named three others: Yemi Osinbajo, a former Attorney General and
Commissioner for Justice in Mr. Tinubu’s administration; Yemi Cardoso,
who was Mr. Tinubu’s budget commissioner; and a former Lagos State
finance commissioner, Wale Edun.

However, Mr. Adeola told NEXT yesterday that he was not particularly bothered by all that.

“My selection was
to run with Nuhu Ribadu, so once we were going to go with Buhari, it is
only right, the party has the right, to look at what was best,” Mr.
Adeola said.

The ACN vice presidential candidate also praised Mr. Ribadu’s selflessness and patriotism.

“The only client I have in this whole thing is Nigeria. I am proud
of the party on whose platform I am running. I am proud of the man I am
running with, for his magnanimity and his generosity in agreeing to
drop his own ambition and step down for another candidate. I am sorry
that the other side decided to scuttle a good chance to win our country
back by not agreeing to this simple request for a resignation letter,”
he said.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday, said
he did not feel threatened by either the collapse of alliance talks
between his party and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), or the
overwhelming endorsement being enjoyed by the PDP presidential
candidate, Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Ribadu, who
made the statement in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists
at a world press conference tagged, ‘Farewell To Nostalgia’, said
though the alliance talks have collapsed, Nigerians still believe in
the ACN.

“I don’t feel
threatened by any party’s endorsing Goodluck because we have also got
endorsement of 12 parties. What matters is Nigerians’ endorsement,
those who are going to vote on Saturday, and that is why we are
pleading to Nigerians to vote wisely because PDP is a continuation of
the rot we are currently experiencing,” Mr. Ribadu said.

Although he agreed
that he had earlier offered to step down for the CPC presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, he clarified that he did not eventually do
so.

“There was no
stepping down; offer is a different thing. During the negotiation,
offers were made by both sides. ACN made a big sacrifice and the other
side made a promise and failed to deliver.

“So, that is the
cause of the failure of the alliance and that is why I still maintain
that I am the candidate. I am standing and asking Nigerians to vote for
me because I did not step down for anybody,” he said.

Art of rigging

Mr. Ribadu noted
that in the history of elections in Nigeria, electoral malpractices
have become the most formidable huddle that had stood against electing
a truly representative and responsible government, and cautioned
against tampering with votes in the remaining elections.

“In last week’s
National Assembly election, the same challenge reared its ugly head
again and the main perpetrators are the same gifted captains in the art
of election rigging and manipulation.

“They are roaming
the streets about now, getting set for action, and if they did it last
week, we would all be naïve to imagine that they would yield on this
criminal and unpatriotic act and go on vacation this coming Saturday,”
he said.

He called on Nigerians to vote wisely in order to ensure that a credible leader emerged in the poll.

Ahead of the presidential poll
tomorrow, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to correct the irregularities and
logistics challenges recorded during the April 9, National Assembly
election.

The group also called on Nigerians to turn out en-mass to exercise their civic responsibility in electing credible leaders.

In a statement signed by, Anthony Sani,
the group noted that the turnout of voters during the National Assembly
election especially in the northern parts of the country was below
expectation compared to the total number of registered voters in the
region.

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In Benue, the
presidential election votes will be split between Nuhu Ribadu,
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and President Goodluck
Jonathan, the incumbent, considering last Saturday’s voting pattern.

At the National
Assembly elections which held last week in some zones in the state, the
PDP won the two contested senatorial seats and six of the nine
contested Federal House of Reps seats.

However, an
analysis of the voting pattern shows that PDP won marginally on
aggregate. The PDP polled 373,775 votes, out of the 769,281 total votes
cast, representing 48.6 per cent of the total votes cast. Their closest
rival, ACN, polled an aggregate of 351,209 votes out of the total votes
cast, representing 45.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) came a distant third with an aggregate of 29,710,
representing 3.8 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. The
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) scored 10,740, a meagre I.4 per
cent share of the total votes cast.

Battle for Benue

The contest is thus
visibly between the PDP and ACN in Benue. The PDP has held the
frontline position in Benue politics since 1999 but its grip on power
is being fiercely challenged.

Some of the
masterminds of the PDP’s previous victories now lead the ACN in the
state. That notwithstanding, loyalists of the PDP in the state believe
the party will keep winning without these masterminds.

The PDP held a
closed-door caucus meeting in Markurdi on Thursday, where the leaders
agreed to go back to their localities to work harder and improve the
size of the party’s victory in the presidential elections.

A political analyst, Benjamin Friday, described the presidential poll as a make or mar one for the ACN.

“If the party loses
this time again, then the people will start thinking they are not as
strong as they claim and that will affect them in the gubernatorial
elections,” Mr. Friday said in Gboko.

“The Tiv speaking
north has always decided the political future of the state with their
lager electorate, and they are the one leading this opposition. So, it
is going to be a strong battle between PDP and ACN on Saturday,” he
added.

Benue INEC ready

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state says it is ready for the presidential polls on Saturday.

Jacob Iyanda,
public relations officer of the commission in Benue, said on Thursday
evening that the state has recieved all the required materials from the
national INEC office and has started the disbursment of same, including
sensitive materials.

“Everything has
arrived, and we have started distributing sensitive materials to the
various local governments,” Mr. Iyanda said.

He added that the
materials arrived quite early from Abuja and they are doing same for
the local government areas so that they too will be properly prepared
for the Saturday polls.

This week’s
distribution comes a day earlier than last week’s. However, last week,
some far flung villages complained of late arrival of materials at
polling centres.

Mr. Ayanda said the commision has concluded the retraining of its officers who will participate in the elections.

The Benue INEC
office has also been put under heavy security survilance by a joint
security team of the Army and Police, ahead of the polls.

The Ogun State
chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it would
head to the electoral tribunal to challenge the national assembly
election results of the Ogun West senatorial district, as well as the
Yewa/Egbado North House of Representatives. The chairman of the PDP
campaign team, Sarafa Ishola, revealed this at the end of the two-day
review session of last Saturday’s election. He said the party was not
satisfied with the so-called victories of the Action Congress of
Nigeria senatorial candidate for Yewa/Egbado West and that of Rasaki
Adewusi of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) for the House of
Representatives.

In a statement
issued by the party, Mr Sarafa said the PDP had incontrovertible
evidence showing that its Ogun West senatorial and Yewa/Egabdo North
House of Representatives candidates won their seats for the party.

“The PDP would be
proving to the electoral tribunal that its candidate, Babatunde Fadu,
won the senatorial seat for Ogun West while Alexander Ajibade won the
House of Representatives seat for Egbado/Yewa North,” he said.

Still in the race

The campaign team
also said its governorship candidate, Tunji Olurin, is still running
for the office, contrary to speculations that he had stepped down for
Gboyega Isiaka, the PPN candidate.

“The PDP
gubernatorial candidate for Ogun State, Adetunji Olurin, is still very
much in the race. This is to put paid to unimaginable wicked lies being
fabricated by PPN and others who do not wish Ogun State people well,”
said the statement, which was signed by Lai Labode, the media committee
chairman.

“The party wishes to confirm to PDP supporters that at no meeting
called by any Yewa Group did the issue of stepping down for a PPN
candidate by Adetunji Olurin came up. It is laughable that the PPN,
which seriously showed very poor outing in the last week elections,
could ever dream that PDP, which did better, would concede to PPN,” it
stated.

Andrew Lloyd who is
also the Permanent Representative of Britain to the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), talks about Britain’s role in the
general elections, his hopes for future bilateral relations and
delivers an assessment of INEC’s performance.

What is your assessment of the elections so far and is there room for improvement?

The elections have
captured the international community’s imagination. There is a large
number of international observers here. These elections are significant
because Nigeria has proven itself to be a champion of democracy. My
sense is that there will always be room for improvement, no matter how
good the elections are; even in the UK with postal ballots and the US
with electronic voting. My overall sense is that last weekend’s
elections were a significant improvement on any election Nigeria has
ever had.

How would you rate Attahiru Jega’s performance in comparison to his predecessor?

I cannot comment on
Maurice Iwu’s performance because I was not here at the time and it
would be unfair. My assessment is that INEC, under Chairman Jega’s
stewardship, has really turned around the conduct of the elections. He
has built a lot of trust with the people of Nigeria and the political
parties.

When there were
logistical problems, Nigerians were quite right to give him the benefit
of the doubt and stick with his leadership and determination in
ensuring Nigeria gets the freest and fairest elections it can in 2011.

Could the logistical challenges behind the botched elections have been handled any better?

The irony is that,
after all the initial fears about the elections, the biggest problem in
the end was something as boring as logistics.

All of us with the
benefit of hindsight could have made different decisions, perhaps, but
I can’t think of many other Nigerians who would want to swap places
with him. I admire his patience, determination and resolve. I was not
in his shoes so I don’t know what I would have done differently. That
there were logistical problems was a disappointment but that INEC
managed to overcome them for April 9 is a cause for congratulation.

What is the biggest thing you are looking for in these elections?

We are not
interested in parties or the personalities but in the process. Our big
hope is that Nigeria builds on last weekend to demonstrate to the rest
of Africa, that even when democracy is hotly contested or the margin of
victory is very small, it’s possible to run a legitimate, credible and
peaceful process. That’s my hope, building on last Saturday. Yes, there
are areas that need to be addressed but my sense is that they are being
addressed.

Is Britain assisting INEC in any way?

It’s for Nigerians
to decide how to manage their democracy. It is not our policy to try
and interfere anywhere in the conduct of democracy. It is our policy,
however, to support democracy where we can. Therefore we have provided
technical assistance and limited financial support for that assistance.

We will engage with
civic society to play a role and indeed with political parties. Looking
forward, I predict political party reform will be on the agenda of
Nigerians and this is again an area in which Britain traditionally
assists. We have budgeted around 20 million pounds for democratic
programmes. Most of which is directed at election assistance. This
however does not reflect the totality of what we do.

Will Britain intervene if there are repeated signs of violence and electoral malpractice?

Well firstly, I
certainly hope it won’t come to that. However, if one sees Kenya or
Cote d’Ivoire-style intimidation and violence, then there needs to be
Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire-style justice. People who frustrate the
democratic process will be held accountable for that. One needs to only
look at what’s happening in the international criminal court in Kenya
to see the range of options that are available. My sense though, is
that we won’t be in that situation in Nigeria. A poorly conducted
election damages the legitimacy of the outcome.

We have already witnessed two serious bombings and recorded cases of shootings. At what point do you decide to intervene?

What happened in
Suleja and Maiduguri was completely unacceptable and contemptible. I
met with the Inspector General of Police just a day before the Suleja
bombing and he was clear that there should be no impunity for this kind
of extremist violence. It is a huge concern and looking ahead, we share
the anxieties of the Nigerian people. The best way to intervene is to
work with local authorities, to try and prevent and deter extremist
violence.

How strong is the current relationship between Britain and Nigeria?

Well this is my
second stint in Nigeria and I can comfortably say it has never been
better. Nigeria went through a very fragile moment when the former
president passed. But it is a moment in which Nigeria triumphed. A key
question was asked, is democracy irreversible? The answer is that yes,
it is absolutely irreversible.

The management of
Intercontinental Bank yesterday denied that there was a court order to
seal up its headquarters on Danmole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Sources however
confirmed that a former employee of the bank secured the order to seal
up the place. Two employees of the bank who work at the headquarters
corroborated that policemen came to the premises to effect the order
but they did not carry out the order after a meeting with the bank’s
management.

At about 4:30pm
yesterday there was a heavy presence of policemen at the bank’s
reception, an indication that something was amiss.

An angry man,
dressed in native attire, was also seen at reception giving orders to
the security officers to close the bank’s entrance door. When
approached and asked why he gave the order, he refused to speak on the
matter. However, it appeared his words had no effect as the officers
left the door open to visitors while staff carried on with their duties.

Eddy Ademosu, the
bank’s spokesperson, claimed that the bank was not aware of any court
order restraining it from carrying out its operation. “Our door is not
locked as you can see,” Mr. Ademosu said, adding, “It is not as if
there are no issues in court relating to shareholders, the bank itself,
or customers’ perceptive, but even issues in court are being resolved
as a responsible organisation.”

According to him,
“If there are issues, it would have been brought to our attention.
Maybe somebody will come tomorrow with a court order — I cannot say,
but as I speak we are not aware of any court injunction.”

He said the heavy presence of security personnel is not new because
“security has always been part of the bank” since the Central Bank
intervention, while he also said the persons giving orders might be
telling the officers to lock the door since it was closing time.