The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has asked Nigerians to support whatever it would take for the new INEC to deliver on the critical demand for a free and fair election in 2011.
It therefore agrees that more time be given to the new INEC to conduct a credible election in 2011 especially as it pertains to conducting a proper voter’s registration exercise for the critical election.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party says it sees nothing wrong in asking for a little more time to conduct a free and fair election than muddling through another electoral charade in 2011.
It calls on Nigerians to support the fresh demand of INEC and not allow the country to be held down by time in seeking the best electoral conduct for the country in 2011.
“What we can decipher from the new INEC’s demand for more time is the need to do a thorough job with the upcoming election. If that is therefore the reason, we do not see any reason why we won’t grant Jega and his INEC more time to do a credible job that will be applauded the world over. We are asking Nigerians to give Jega some little more time to conduct a free and fair election and hold him responsible for any failures and give him credit where he succeeds.
“This demand for more time has, once again, underscored the dangerous politics played by the present PDP with the tenure of the discredited former INEC chairman, who would have been sacked long ago to give a new INEC enough room to conduct a credible election,” the party said.
Continuing, Igbokwe said: “We now experience the folly in keeping an INEC leadership that roundly messed up the electoral system for too long time and empanelling a new INEC leadership on the eve of elections to do a miraculous turnaround of the horribly messed electoral system. We saw this present danger when the government and the PDP was dilly dallying on the Iwu issue and were rather shopping for time for him. We saw the present diktat coming which was why we were persistently calling for the sack of Iwu and the empanelling of a new INEC to lead the quest for a credible election in 2011.
“We want to state that Nigeria has given the new INEC leadership anything it asked for in our desire to see it conduct a free and fair election in 2011. We do not see anything wrong with granting them the time extension if that will make for a free and fair election in 2011. We are concerned, as most Nigerians, about the grave implications of another shambolic election in 2011 so we join in asking for just a little more time to enable INEC give us a credible election next year.
“It is the opinion of Lagos CAN that INEC be granted some weeks’ extension within which it could do a proper voter registration as this is central to the conduct of a free and fair election. While we believe that nothing is sacrosanct with the May 29 handover date, we believe that the freeness and fairness or otherwise of the forth coming election will go a long way to define the continued existence of the country. We would not like to arm INEC with any excuse to fail on this critical assignment and we believe Nigeria will be better with a credible election in 2011. So, we call for a little more time for INEC to conduct a credible election in 2011 and we urge all Nigerians to do all to assist INEC to deliver in 2011.â€
