Jonathan Expresses Confidence In INEC

President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that the development that led to the postponement of last Saturday’s elections notwithstanding, he is confident that  the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, would live up to expectation.

Jonathan expressed confidence in the INEC boss while fielding questions from journalists at a photo exhibition mounted in his honour at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

The president said that Jega had his support and he was optimistic that Nigeria would get it right by conducting credible, free and fair elections this year.

“Jega has my full support, the day I no longer support him I will of course raise the process of removing him.

“You know that of course, if he is no longer performing well, I will communicate to the National Assembly to terminate his appointment. Until I do that, I am fully in his support and I know that he will do well,’’ he said.

The president said that the postponement of the parliamentary elections by INEC demonstrated “that the country and the electoral body are totally committed to ensuring that they conduct credible elections’’.

He said INEC had the alternative of going ahead with the polls without the result sheets to later enter the results at the collation centres, but it did otherwise.

“What arrived late was the result sheets. The result sheets could have been distributed that night to everybody or probably late in the night and they could have entered the results.

“That would have meant that, from the polling units probably, they would have taken the materials to the collation centres where they would have entered the results and that is what we are against. That is what INEC is against.

“We want to make sure that all results are entered there at the polling units and distributed to all the agents of the political parties and the candidates.

“So, if INEC wanted to conduct elections that could have been queried, it could have gone ahead to conduct the elections.

“What happened is another demonstration that the country and the electoral body is totally committed to ensure that they conduct credible elections.’’

Jonathan appealed to Nigerians not to be discouraged over the development, but to regard it as a sacrifice to the country.

“It is a sacrifice that all of us are offering. I was also in the village, but I had to come back.

“We really regret what happened. A number of people spent money to go to their homes to vote, unfortunately it was cancelled,’’ he said.

He urged Nigerians to go out in their numbers to cast their votes in all the elections assuring that their votes would count.