Ex-INEC Chairman, Jega Replies Jonathan on Comments Over Conduct of 2015 Election

Posted by Odinaka on Thu 27th Apr, 2017 - tori.ng

Professor Attahiru Jega has responded to Goodluck Jonathan's statement that the 2015 general election was flawed due to the different votes recorded in the election.

Attahiru Jega

Professor Attahiru Jega, the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has reacted to former President Goodluck Jonathan, over comments concerning the 2015 general elections.

Recall that we had reported that Goodluck Jonathan in a book, "Against the Run of Play", written by ThisDay Editorial Board Chairman, Olusegun Adeniyi, expressed disappointment with how Jega conducted the election.

The former President said it was strange that Kano state recorded 1.8 million votes in the presidential poll and 800,000 in the National Assembly election on the same day. He faulted the results of the 2015 presidential election, saying that he conceded defeat to avoid bloodshed.

“Go and check the results from Kano. The Presidential election and that of National Assembly happened on the same day and same time. The National Assembly result reflected that about 800,000 people voted but that of the presidential reflected a vote of about 1.8 million.

"I had reports of what happened but I decided that for such to be accepted, it meant that those who called themselves my supporters must have colluded. I was betrayed by the very people I relied on to win the election.

"In 2011 when Buhari did not campaign anywhere and could not have won the election, there was a spontaneous violent reaction that led to the death of several innocent people, including Youth Corps members.”

“I asked myself: what would happen in a situation in which there was already internal and international conspiracy in his favour? I could not bear the thought of anybody dying, so I told myself I had only one option and that was to concede," Jonathan said.

While reacting though his Special Assistant, Prof. Mohammed Kuna, Jega disagreed with Jonathan’s belief that the wide margin between the presidential election and National Assembly results in the state was a reflection of a flawed election.

Kuna dismissed Jonathan’s claims and insisted that the introduction of the card reader made it difficult to manipulate elections and inflate results.

“There is nothing particularly special about the Kano result; it is a general trend as many voters were more interested in the presidential election than in other elections. That was what happened across the country and you can go and do the tabulation.

“With the card reader, it is no longer possible to return results that are higher than the accredited voters. If you analyse the results nationally, you will discover the same trend.”

A source also close to Jega said the former president but have been ill-advised as the former INEC chairman would not have been arm-twisted to do what was wrong.