Date Published: 05/11/10

FG appoints Adedeji as New Acting INEC Chairman

The Federal government yesterday announced the appointment of Prince Solomon Adedeji as the acting chairman of Independent national Electoral Commission pending the appointment of a substantive chairman.

A statement signed by the Secretary of the Commission, Alhaji Abdullahi Kaigama said the appointment is in ‘conformity with Section 14 (1a) of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria.

The statement reads: “The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved the appointment of Prince Solomon Adedeji as the Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pending the appointment of a substantive chairman.

“This appointment has been made in conformity with Section 14 (1a) of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Specially, the section stipulates that the Independent National Electoral Commission shall be headed by a chairman, who among other considerations must not be less than fifty years of age.
“Of the three National Commissioners serving in the Commission at the moment, only Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, who is over fifty years old, has met this requirement, hence the basis for his appointment.  “The Acting Chairman will address the directing staff of the Commission on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 in the conference Hall of the Commission at 11 a.m prompt” the statement said.

The announcement of another acting chairman for the commission has brought to an end two weeks of confusion in the commission following the directive that the erstwhile chairman of the commission, Professor Maurice Iwu should hand over to the most senior commissioner in the commission.

Following the retirement of the most senior commissioner, Barr. Chukwuani along with Professor Maurice Iwu, Barr. Philip Umeadi who is the more senior of the two remaining commissioners was supposed to assume office as the acting chairman.

But Professor Iwu who had a running battle with him  refused to hand over to Barr. Umeadi but instead chose to be meeting with the secretary of the commission and other senior staff to prepare his handover notes.

In the last two weeks he has been seen in the commission headquarter three times and has met with the secretary of the commission, some staff but deliberately declined to meet with his designated successor, allegedly vowing that he would never hand over to him.

Until his appointment as acting chairman, he was a national commissioner in the commission in charge of Operations from Ogun state. He was appointed following the death of Mrs Kemi Odebiyi who died while in service.