by Musa Abdullahi
The Presidency says the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Attahiru Jega will exit the office naturally and not sack as Nigerians have said.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) senators caucus in the national assembly thursday said they had received information that Attahiru Jega, will be directed to proceed on terminal leave next week.
If one is to explain the Presidency’s ‘natural’ statement made by the supervising Minister of Information and Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Edem Duke during a meeting with journalists in Abuja on Friday, February 27.
Jega’s time as INEC Chairman will elapse before 28 of March, a date being set aside to conduct the much awaited 2015 Presidential elections by Nigeria.
Duke however stated that Jega’s exit from INEC would follow a natural course.
“On the issue of the INEC chairman, I align myself with what the president said that he has no plan to sack the INEC chairman,” Duke said.
“That is not to say that if it is time for the INEC chairman to naturally exit his office, then the natural course of things will not take place. It is like saying, a civil servant has done 35 years or achieved the age of 60; we now begin to say that he must not retire or he must retire. I think all of that is in the terrain of the presidency and he has spoken,” he added.
Sources at the Presidential Villa Abuja tells NewsWireNGR that senior aides to President Jonathan are pushing for his removal so he won’t be allowed to conduct the elections, another source who doesn’t want his name mentioned in print also alleged that his letter to proceed on terminal leave has already been signed by Mr President.
