Date Published: 07/29/10

Remove Ayoka as Ondo REC or we embark on protests, NLC warns Jega

Oppositions have continued to mount against the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega over the positing of controversial Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo to Ondo State as organized Labour, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Party (NLC) gave the INEC boss twenty one days to remove her of face mass protest.

While warning Prof Jega of the credibility problem the development has created for a man with a clean record, NLC called for the immediate transfer of Mrs. Adebayo out of the State to an obscure office at the INEC office in Abuja where she could be monitored.

In an open letter to the INEC boss, the Ondo State Chapter of the NLC while expressing shock over the posting of Mrs. Adebayo to Ondo State after her vexed performance in the Ekiti State re-run election, opined that all officials of INEC with dented service record should either be relieved of their posts or transferred to offices not too risky to affect or influence credible electoral processes in any State of the federation.

The letter which was signed by the Comrades Momodu Braimoh and Ebenezer Akinde, State Chairman and Secretary respectively, stated that the working people were shocked to “receive the unexpected information concerning Chief (Mrs.) Ayoka Adebayo, former Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State recently posted to Ondo State. Ondo and Ekiti are sister States and we know much about the electoral fraud perpetrated in Ekiti State though denied especially during the re-run gubernatorial and senatorial elections presided over by Mrs. Adebayo”.

They Congress in pleading, on behalf of the people to Jega to “please give us men of virtue who fits in perfectly with the vision of Josiah Gilbert Holland in his popular Prayer, ‘GOD GIVE US MEN’ “ … men whom the lust of office does not kill. Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy…men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his treacherous flattery without winking….”

“An INEC Resident Commissioner with these attributes is the person we need in Ondo State and not someone like Chief (Mrs.) Ayoka Adebayo who could not stand before her political godfathers and damn her treacherous flattery without winking taking into consideration what she did in Ekiti State re-run elections.

But the NLC leaders warned that should Prof Jega failed to accede to this “our humble request to transfer Chief (Mrs.) Ayoka Adebayo”, out of the State as REC and replace her with : “one of your men of honour and integrity who cannot be unduly influenced by anyone”, within a period of 21 days from July 27th, 2010, they would embark on series of protests against all INEC officials in Ondo State by the “working people of Ondo State to be led by the NLC, Ondo State Council.

Their words: “In order to avoid our mass protest, please act fast by transferring Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo to an obscure office at INEC headquarters, Abuja and not to any State of the Federation as Resident Electoral Commissioner until she is absolved of Ekiti electoral palaver. This is the only way for your administration to start well as a reliable electoral Umpire in Nigeria.”