The crises in the wake of the aborted National Assembly elections almost came to a head late Saturday night when a frustrated Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] chairman Professor Attahiru Jega offered to resign at a heated meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Jonathan at the Aso Rock Villa, government sources revealed yesterday.

According to our sources, top security officials at the meeting angrily blamed Jega for the problems that led to the election’s failure. Most of them accused Jega of arrogantly rejecting the offer to use the military for election logistics. He then said the government should constitute a military task force to take over all election logistics.

At a point during the bitter exchanges, the INEC chairman offered to resign immediately. Sources from the meeting said Attorney General and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke intervened and said a resignation by the chairman in the midst of elections will amount to treason, whereupon, President Jonathan rejected the resignation offer there and then.

Other agency reports reveal that the decision to further postpone the elections became inevitable when INEC’s commissioners in the field expressed fears that they may also encounter difficulties remobilising their polling officers at short notice. Besides, there were problems of mix-ups and omissions in the ballot papers of some areas that need to be reprinted in order for those areas to participate in the elections. For example, in Gombe Central senatorial district, CPC’s name and logo were omitted from the ballot paper, while the codes for Gombe North and South senatorial districts were mixed up.

http://africanheraldexpress.com/blog7/2011/04/04/jega-offers-to-resign-jonathan-rejects-resignation-amounts-to-treason-agf/

I think the man has been commended in some quarters for coming out bluntly and revealing THE TRUE situation of issues.

Thumbs up,and hoping to improve and correct all anomalies before Saturday.

Jega has shown his lack of sophistication and a large element of incompetence. If you can't even get the ballot papers printed and shipped into the country on time, how much trust should be placed on his ability to conduct a free and fair elections?

If the military could have helped with logistics then Jega was foolish to refuse their help, unless he had doubts about their impartiality.

Secondly, the hurried and ill thought postponement to Monday showed he's not really thinking through some of his actions.

He has a week to get his act in order and potentially write his name in gold as the organiser of the best elections in the country.

debosky:

Jega has shown his lack of sophistication and a large element of incompetence. If you can't even get the ballot papers printed and shipped into the country on time, how much trust should be placed on his ability to conduct a free and fair elections?

If the military could have helped with logistics then Jega was foolish to refuse their help, unless he had doubts about their impartiality.

Secondly, the hurried and ill thought postponement to Monday showed he's not really thinking through some of his actions.

He has a week to get his act in order and potentially write his name in gold as the organiser of the best elections in the country.

Ibime:

Honourable of him to offer his resignation, but we will wait till after the elections to score him.