Revealed: Plot to abduct Jega during presidential poll
The main part of Orubebe's action, according to
Reuters on Thursday, was a plot to use hired thugs
to kidnap the Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and
consequently stall the electoral process.
The news agency quoted unnamed pro-democracy
advocates and a Nigeria-based diplomat as saying
that one of Jega's aides unearthed the plot.
It said that the aide had sent a text message to an
independent voting monitor, "warning of an
imminent threat to the electoral process."
Reuters said it pieced the information together from
the text message, events on the ground during the
announcement of the results and interviews with pro-
democracy advocates and diplomats in Abuja.
It added that when the independent voting monitor
sent the SMS, he hoped the outside world would hear
of the plot and the text of the message .
"Fellow countrymen, Nigeria on Trial," read the SMS
sent on the morning of March 31 to the head of the
Situation Room, an Abuja-based coalition of human
rights groups and pro-democracy advocates
monitoring the elections.
"Plans are on storm [sic] the podium at the ICC
Collation Centre and disrupt the process. Nobody is
sue [sic] what will happen. Please share this as widely
as possible," the text read further.
At that moment, Jega was about to preside over the
announcement of the results.
As tallies from around the country showed that the
All Progressives Congress candidate, Muhammadu
Buhari, was leading, "unidentified PDP(Peoples
Democratic Party) hard-liners started to panic,
seeking ways of manipulating the count," the boss of
the Situation Room and the diplomat said, citing
political contacts in the Niger Delta and Abuja.
Realising they could not engineer an outright win,
the PDP agents set about doctoring the tally at
collation centres in pro- (Goodluck) Jonathan areas to
ensure Buhari failed to meet a requirement for 25
per cent support in two-thirds of the states, the head
of the Situation Room said, citing reports from
election monitors on the ground.
Reuters said its reporter witnessed and
photographed one tally list in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State with suspiciously similar totals for registered
voters at polling stations: 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500,
500, 500, 450.
In another tally centre in the city, 17,594 valid votes
were recorded out of a registered voter population of
11,757, the Reuters reporter said.
Foreign election observers also noted the
peculiarities – and contacted diplomats in Abuja who
called in international intervention.
The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, and
his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, who were
in Switzerland for talks on Iran – issued a tough
statement saying vote counting "may be subject to
deliberate political interference."
But as Buhari's lead grew, some PDP supporters
from the Niger Delta, including Orubebe, decided on
a final gamble: to create a disturbance in the main
INEC hall and have "thugs snatch Jega from the stage,
Reuters quoted the Head of the Situation Room and
the Abuja-based diplomat.
What the group planned to do after the abduction
was unclear, they said.
"It was a desperate thing, mostly by a group of
people from the Niger Delta who were in the room,"
the Situation Room head said, describing events that
unfolded publicly in the minutes after he received the
SMS.
When Jega opened proceedings on the morning of
March 31, Orubebe had grabbed a microphone and
launched into an 11-minute tirade accusing Jega of
bias.
"Mr. chairman, we have lost confidence in you," he
shouted, pushing away officials trying to make him
surrender the microphone. "You are being very, very
selective. You are partial," he continued, surrounded
by three or four supporters. "You are tribalistic. We
cannot take it."
At this point, according to the Head of the Situation
Room and the diplomat, Jega's security details were
approached by unidentified individuals telling them
to stand down but they declined.
"Some of the guards who had been guarding Jega for
years demanded a written order," the Head of the
Situation Room said.
Jega later rebuked Orubebe, saying, "Let us not
disrupt a process that has ended peacefully," he said
as Orubebe slumped in his chair.
"Mr. Orubebe, you are a former minister of the
Federal Republic. You are a statesman in your own
right. You should be careful about what you say or
about what allegations you make," he said.
Orubebe later congratulated Buhari on Twitter,
expressing his "apologies to fellow Nigerians."
Orubebe did not respond to requests by the news
agency for comment on the details of the plot.
INEC, said the news agency, also declined to
comment and turned down requests for an interview
with Jega,
Reuters however said it found no evidence to
suggest that Jonathan, who accepted defeat in the
election, was involved in the plot.
The Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of the
commission, Kayode Idowu, told our correspondent
that he was not aware of the alleged plot to kidnap
Jega.
Idowu said, "I think somebody is imagining here. The
chairman was not aware of any such plan, he didn't
conduct any investigation to know that. He was not
under such threat during or after the
announcement.''
•Online PR | Photography | Graphics | E-Consultancy
• www.ThatYorubaBoy.com
☎ Call: +2348027631814
Blackberry Pin:25C01796
0 Comments: