Date Published: 04/29/10

PRESS RELEASE

Iwu’s exit as a soothing elixir to Ekiti

It is with great joy and relief that we received the cheering news of the exit of Nigeria’s most controversial electoral umpire, Maurice Iwu.

Ekiti people had cried out to high heavens about how Maurice Iwu had turned a simple civic duty, election, to a nightmare for them. The case of Ekiti is pathetic where the people had been subjected to harrowing voting experiences twice in two years, without a result yet.

We are yet to get over the bitter electoral experience caused by Iwu’s abracadabra in the April 14, 2007 gubernatorial elections and the April 25, 2009 supplementary election, the result of which produced the present pretenders in Ekiti government house who had made life hellish for the people.

Despite the anguish he brought on Ekiti and other Nigerians where he had imposed candidates who did not win elections, he had not shown any remorse for his actions.

Iwu is an electoral umpire who is supposed to be an unbiased referee but also doubled as the team manager of the opposing team.

We congratulate the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for taking the bull by the horns in removing a very partisan and partial arbiter, who is a tool in the hands of unpopular politicians who could not popularly win an election without his magic.

It shows Dr. Jonathan has kept his words and listened to the yearnings of Nigerians to embark on Electoral reforms starting with the removal of unrepentant and incorrigible Iwu.

We urge Dr. Jonathan to appoint a Nigerian of integrity and good pedigree who would enjoy the confidence of all Nigerians to head INEC, while we urge him to embark on a major surgical operation on the Commission so as to exorcise the remaining Iwu’s human droplets.

The action of Dr. Jonathan is a signal to electoral robbers that the game is over and it is no longer business as usual. We especially commiserate with Ekiti poll robbers for the loss of their electoral daddy and we congratulate Ekiti people for the breath of fresh air which the exit of Iwu would afford them.

It shows there is hope for a free and fair election in the nearest future while hoping that the Iwu assisted electoral robbery in Ekiti would soon be redressed by the judiciary.

Yemi Adaramodu

Director of Communications

Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation

April 28, 2010