For daring to speak up about how Attahiru Jega`s led INEC plotted the false start, in the April 2nd elections, and how INEC was ill prepared for the subsequent presidential elections on April 4th, a local printing contractor in Nigeria has received death threats.
A text message sent to him, threatening his life for being a whistle blower reads:
“You idiot whoever your sponsors are, they will not protect you when we come for after you. You don’t know anything about INEC, so shut up your dirty mouth. Be warned”.
Another text message he received reads:
“My brother, I read your interview on the failed election. Good but thread softly; Nigeria is not worth dying for yet. Talk no more”
However, for the third time within seventy two hours, INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega has chosen to be economical with words.
Rather than take responsibility for his actions, Jega has absolved himself and labeled the contractors, whom he hired single handedly, against the better judgment of many specialist, as saboteurs.
Not holding brief for the contractors, but if anyone should be branded “saboteur” it should be our activist lecturer turned INEC czar, who lied to Nigerians and the President, who reluctantly refused Jega`s resignation letter over the weekend, as it brought to question the President`s sense of judgment. After all, he hired Jega, a source affirmed
Was it the contractors who waited till March 10th 2011, three weeks before the elections to award contract for the printing of over five hundred million election materials? the source asked.
Huhuonline.com understands that Prof. Attahiru Jega rejected contractors who were competent and had excellent track record of delivering because they were from Southern Nigeria. Finding shows that ¾ of the contractors hired by Prof Jega were from the North.
Specifically, one Alhaji Musa, a very close ally of Attahiru Jega and his benefactor (a Presidential aide) received a chunk of the printing job.
The total sum of printing contract awarded to Musa was one hundred and fifty million naira (N150, 000,000.00), which he subsequently subcontracted to UK based Graphic Inline.
Alhaji Musa was first given a work order for Seventy five million naira, and later another Seventy five million naira work order was signed off for him, after a leading printing company (name withheld), rejected the job, because they were over booked.
The other two local contractors are Alhaji Sanni and Alhaji Yerima, who represents Aeroprint and Aero Vote Limited respectively. Aero Vote Limited is a security printing company, based in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.
Our checks reveals that Aero Vote Limited, Aero print and Graphic Inline are not new to INEC as the have printed election material for the commission in the past.
As reported previously, besides the material for the National Assembly elections, we understand that material for the presidential election, originally scheduled for April 9th, but rescheduled to April 16th are not ready. However INEC has already printed all the materials for the Presidential runoff elections, which simply amount to a case of putting the cart before the horse.
findings shows that INEC had contracted a Spanish firm to print one hundred and fifty million ballot papers for the presidential elections. Eighty million of the ballot papers were to be used for presidential, while the other seventy million was for the runoff. Due to conflicting instructions or lack thereof, the company rather than start with the ballot papers for the presidential elections, printed the runoff first.
According to our sources, they found out they did not have the capacity to print the ballot papers for runoff and main presidential elections; they returned the main to INEC.
Stuck and desperate, Prof Attahiru Jega then re-awarded the printing of the ballot papers for the presidential elections to his crony Alhaji Musa, who had not delivered the first job that was awarded to him.
Unbeknown to Nigerian registered voters, on April 3rd 2011, INEC had not taken delivery of all the electoral materials. Yet, Prof Attahiru Jega in his nationwide broadcast, titled “we can’t afford to fail”, said:
“Finally, as elections commence tomorrow, we must seek free, fair, credible and peaceful elections with a vigorous commitment that restores confidence, dispels fear, and moves the nation away from the mistakes of the past. We must do the elections right".
Continuing, Jega said:
“We must not fail each other and we must not fail our dear country”.
But Prof. Attahiru Jega, who in the past had told Nigerians not to expect a "perfect poll", was not true to his words, as he had planned to fail; he did not have the material conduct the elections.Yet he announced that Nigerian should go to the polls.
Embarrassed by the public outcry, Jega hurriedly move the election to the 4th of April, which also was not a feasible date, until he was prevailed upon by the presidency, (who had received intelligence report that Jega did not have the election materials), and other political parties to move the election to April 9th.
However, it remains to be seen if Prof. Attahiru Jega and his select team of contractors will do the election right.We are watching
More News:
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, insisted this morning that it will not reveal the identity of the vendor whose failure to deliver sensitive election materials resulted in postponement of National Assembly election last Saturday.
•INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega at a press conference in Abuja.
Kayode Idowu, the spokesperson for Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman, INEC told P.M.NEWS this morning that the commission will not disclose the identity of the contractor in spite of curiosity from the public. The refusal to reveal the name of the vendor, he said, is to avoid “media trial of the contractor”.
Professor Jega had last Saturday afternoon announced the postponement of the National Assembly elections in spite of the fact that millions of prospective voters had lined up in polling booths across the country, with voting already commencing in some areas.
Jega had blamed the postponement on ‘ unprecedented late arrival of result sheets’ as one of the vendors awarded contract for the printing of the document said he was unable to secure aircraft to transport the materials to Nigeria on time.
The INEC Chairman said the contractor had in turn blamed the Tsunami disaster that occurred in Japan for the problem.
According to Jega, though the vendor had earlier promised to deliver the materials to Nigeria on Thursday, the result sheets arrived in Nigeria late Saturday morning, when the process of the election is already underway across the country.
The INEC Chairman said it therefore became imperative to postpone the election because it will not be possible to distribute the materials across the 120,000 polling booths in the country before the end of the polls that day.
“We could have proceeded with the election in a few states of the country where materials are available such as Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Delta, Zamfara and Enugu among others. In order to maintain the integrity of the election and take effective overall control of the process, the commission has taken a very difficult but necessary decision to postpone the National Assembly election to Monday, April 4,” Jega said.
But as controversies mount over the reason given for the cancellation of the election, Nigerians have continued to demand that the identity of the contractor who defaulted in the supply of the report sheets be disclosed.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State and Action Congress of Nigeria leader, had, following the postponement of the election last Saturday raised posers on the contract and the contractor: “Can you vouch that contract has not turned to patronage? How much did it cost Bangladesh to register 80 million? How much did it cost Nigeria? Is it not part of influence? Is it not that some National Assembly members influenced the INEC to favour one contractor or the other irrespective of its capacity to deliver? Has it been independent of all the exercise?”
There are reports that about 10 companies were awarded the contract for the printing of the ballot papers and the result sheets. One report had indicated that the company is Royal Mint of Spain, while there are speculations that the company is a Japanese company.
Idowu had denied that the company is based in Spain, but insisted this morning that INEC will not reveal the identity of the defaulting vendor since the issue is being taken through a legal process for appropriate sanctions. He said this is to avoid media trial while he vowed that the commission will ensure that appropriate punishment is meted out to the contractor.
When asked if the commission is trying to shield the contractors from Nigerians, Idowu replied: “No, no, appropriate measures are being taken to punish the vendor for breach of contract and media trial of the contractor may also be another breach of the contract.”
Idowu also told P.M.NEWS that contract for the printing of the result sheets was awarded just before the elections, but was not specific on the particular time. We gathered that the contract was awarded on 10 March.
On whether the late award of the contract was not responsible for the delay in the delivery of the materials, Idowu, while insisting that the contract was awarded at the appropriate time, added that “even if the contract was awarded late, the contractual terms will not stipulate that the materials should be delivered late.”
Apart from Royal Mint of Spain, other foreign companies allegedly contracted to print the ballot papers are Aero Vote Limited, a security printing company based in Buckingamshire, United Kingdom, Sanfrano, a Germany-based company with a Nigerian associate called Alhaji Sani; Musa.
Aero Print, and V.I Solutions said to belong to a Nigerian called Alhaji Yahaya Musa.
culled & adapted from huhuonline.com & pmnews papers
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