Why Jega must proceed on terminal leave – Pro-Jonathan group(public editors)

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Barely three weeks to the presidential election, different groups have upped their game and have re­newed calls for the outright sack or forceful retirement of the chairman of the Inde­pendent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega over his al­leged romance with the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

One of such groups champi­oning the campaign, Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria, told journalists during a press conference in Abuja yesterday that based on their findings, Prof. Jega ought to have proceeded on compul­sory pre-retirement leave in tandem with the Civil Service rules.

Drawing instances from his research, Director-General of the group, Comrade Preye Dressman said INEC as a pub­lic institution, backed by law and duly recognised by the constitution should be guided by the provisions that are clearly enshrined in the book.

“We have duly carried out our research and find nowhere, where it is written or insinu­ated that the Commission is a private organisation to be run different from what has be­come sacrosanct, with respect to its contemporaries. By that, I mean other public service institutions in Nigeria”, Dress­man argued.

Speaking further, he said: “It is instructive to note that his (Jega) tenure as INEC chairman is a five-year ar­rangement which is clearly in­dicated in the law establishing the Commission. By June this year, that tenure would have been fully exhausted, leaving the president with the preroga­tive of either retaining him or simply appointing another in his stead.