The independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said the 2015
\ngeneral Elections were not credible despite the accolade received by Prof.
\nAttahiru Jega,the former Chairman of INEC.<\/p>\n
In a rebuttal to an article written by Emmanuel Onwubiko, published in
\nThisDay Newspapers, INEC’s spokesman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said despite
\npraises over the conduct of the 2015 elections, the courts have nullified
\n80 of the elections.<\/p>\n
“If the 2015 general elections were that perfect why did the court nullify
\n80 of them,” Oyekanmi said in his rebuttal.<\/p>\n
Below is the full rebuttal:<\/p>\n
Dear Emmanuel,<\/p>\n
I was quite disappointed but not surprised about your ill-informed article
\non INEC published in today\u2019s ThisDay newspaper. Is this your idea of Human
\nRights Activism \u2013 spreading lies, disparaging individuals and making false
\nallegations?<\/p>\n
You said Prof Yakubu headed \u201can incompetent TETFUND\u201d. But what do you
\nreally know about TETFUND? I can tell you that in the history of that
\ngovernment agency, Prof. Yakubu\u2019s tenure was the best ever. For instance,
\nhe established the Book Development Fund, which has so far converted
\nseveral of our country\u2019s best PhD Theses into textbooks and distributed
\nfree to all Universities. He established Research Fund and many
\nUniversities could not even take advantage of it because they were not
\nready. His established another Fund, which enabled University and
\nPolytechnic teachers to embark on postgraduate studies (PHD) in both local
\nand foreign universities. They also attended international conferences. I
\ncan go on and on and I did a lot of articles on all these. Prof Yakubu
\nprepared the Needs Assessment Document for Universities which established
\nthe gaps in all ramifications in the university system. This was when Prof
\nRuqayyatu Rufai was Education Minister. He was the only TETFUND Executive
\nSecretary that ASUU praised. Go and check.<\/p>\n
You also alleged that INEC under Prof Yakubu \u201chas fumbled and failed
\nclearly to conduct conclusive re-run elections\u201d Why didn\u2019t you, for
\ninstance, volunteer to help INEC in the December 10 Rivers Re-run and
\nserve in at least one local government? INEC has so far conducted 165
\nelections most of which were court-ordered arising from the 2015 General
\nelections. The same 2015 general elections that some of you have been
\npraising to high heavens. If the 2015 general elections were that perfect,
\nwhy did the courts nullify 80 of then? And mind you, more than 80% of the
\nelections conducted by the Yakubu-led INEC were conclusive at first
\nballot. Yet, it was only last December that the Commission had a full
\ncompliment of National Commissioners. These are facts which you can easily
\nask us to provide if you don\u2019t know. But you chose to shoot blindly. Of
\ncourse, you did it in purpose.<\/p>\n
You are a disgrace to professional journalism. You were at The Guardian\u2019s
\nAbuja office. Now, tell me what you accomplished? You did not even rise to
\nbecome a Deputy Bureau Chief, not to talk of a Bureau Chief. And how many
\nawards did you win? How many fellowships did you win? What were your
\nachievements as a journalist, either before you joined The Guardian or
\nafter? Tell me! I have a fair idea of what you did at the Abuja Bureau and
\nthe circumstances under which you left. I have the facts. You cannot just
\nsit in one corner and be disparaging other people unjustly. That is not
\nhow to be a crusader or an activist. You were simply reckless and very
\nrude, and this is a shame.<\/p>\n
Rotimi Oyekanmi is the Chief Press Secretary to INEC CHAIRMAN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said the 2015 general Elections were not credible despite the accolade received by Prof. Attahiru Jega,the former Chairman of INEC. In a rebuttal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n