Political parties yesterday turned the heat on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for accusing them of bribing security agencies and the electoral commission to rig elections in their favour.

The parties described Jega’s statement as dishonest and untrue, challenging him to name the culprits in the bribery saga.

But former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, told National Mirror that commercialisation of elections by political parties had been going on in the country for long.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP; All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA; and Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, spoke with National Mirror on the issue yesterday.

Jega had, at a two-day roundtable conference with the theme, “Party politics in Nigeria and lobbying the lobbyist and the legislature” on Monday in Abuja, said: “Political parties budget funds with which to bribe security agencies and INEC officials during elections.

“Of course, this is being resisted but we have to stop all this in our electoral process.

“There is a terrible lack of civility with which the parties relate to one another or the stakeholders.”

The PDP through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, however challenged INEC to mention names of political parties that budget money for the purpose of bribing the commission for electoral favour.

Metuh said: “We heard what the INEC chairman said that some political parties bribe INEC officials to help rig or influence elections, but our response to it is that Jega should be honourable enough to mention the names of the political parties involved.

“Under the circumstances of transparent and fair election, INEC officials can no longer rig or influence elections.” The party said that INEC officials could not afford to rig or influence elections as the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states had proven. But the CPC said that Nigerians knew who Jega was referring to, even as it also indicted the INEC chairman as having contributed immensely to the problems besetting the electoral process in Nigeria.

The CPC National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, told National Mirror that Jega knows CPC is not in this ignoble endeavour. “Prof. Jega knows clearly that PDP, the ruling party that ensured his appointment, is the major culprit in this despicable and utterly reprehensible act. “INEC, very altruistically, has always worked in a way to undermine the interest of other parties.

“But for judicial interventions at the highest level, INEC under Jega’s watch had compromised itself in imposing candidates on the parties. “Truth be told, Jega’s INEC contributed immensely to the perils of the electoral process in Nigeria.

“In other climes, such commentary as Jega’s should have attracted further investigations from the law enforcement agencies.

“Which parties are involved? Which INEC officials have been compromised already? What has Jega done to ameliorate the situation? It is not just enough to try and look good with this kind of statement.”

ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, denied his party’s involvement in the untoward act.

“I know that ACN do not vote money to bribe security or INEC officials. On the contrary, all we have been asking for is a level-playing ground in the electoral process.

“Unfortunately, some political parties have more influence on INEC, security agencies and others. “And we have always been disturbed that as long as chairman and INEC members are appointees of the ruling government and the police are centrally controlled, it will be difficult to persuade anybody that there is a level-playing ground,” the ACN spokesman said.

The ANPP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Emma Eneukwu, denied ever budgeting for the bribing of INEC officials and will never do such.

According to him, “If we are budgeting to bribe INEC, we will not be diminishing the way we are in some states.

“If there is any bribing, then it is done by PDP, not my party.

“We only budget for our agents and what we budget for them is not enough. “He (Jega) should come out clearly to say that PDP budgets to bribe INEC officials.

It is clearly the style act of PDP to budget for INEC during elections.” The National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, described Jega’s statement as a mere allegation.

He said: “We’ve not budgeted money for bribing INEC and security agencies during elections. “What we know is that candidates, especially incumbents, out of desperation bribe INEC and security agencies to rig elections in their favour.

“It will be funny if a political party make a provision for bribing INEC security agencies during election in its budget. This is so because party budgets are opened to the public.

“Some parties may be doing it through other means, but in APGA we don’t believe in compromising the electoral process.”

The APGA national chairman challenged INEC to name the parties involved in this unwholesome act.

“If Jega has evidence of those political parties making provision for money to bribe INEC and security agencies during elections, he should make them known to the public so those involved would be prosecuted,” he told National Mirror.

Balarabe, however, said there is element of truth in Jega’s statement. “Commercialisation of election in Nigeria has been going on for long.

“Since 1960, rich political parties have been able to manipulate the electoral process. That is why election is not free and fair in Nigeria.

“Jega’s allegation is certainly possible. Setting money aside in the budget to bribe security agencies and INEC by political parties is not impossible in the case of rich political par- success of the policy. ties.

“For a political party to be involved in bribing INEC and security agencies, it must control at least a state in Nigeria.

“And if you look at the existing political parties, only six are in the position of controlling a state. “So, those six political parties who have the capacity should be asked why they are doing that.”

The National Chairman of Labour Party, LP, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, said that the allegation was founded but that it was not too difficult for INEC chairman to call a spade a spade.

Nwanyawu said Jega must be referring to the big political parties with money and not small parties like LP that he said was struggling to meet its obligations financially.

He said that INEC could say that because it was either that the commission’s officials had been bribed in the past or there had been attempts to bribe them.

Nwanyanwu said: “It is worrisome. For him to say such thing means he must have been experiencing such pressures from moneybags in the big political parties.

“But it would have been more apt for him to name the parties involved because such statement suggests that attempts have been made to bribe INEC officials by political parties.

“At the same time, we must have to congratulate Jega for having the courage to speak out because these are what small political parties like LP suffer in the hands of mega-parties whose leaders and officials have deep pockets built from our commonwealth.”
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/?p=14929

See criminals pretending to be saint.

I dont need any evidence from Jega to know he is saying the truth,with the do or die mentality of this political paties.

[size=16pt]Sir, Pls name them


or


Shut up[/size]