Moving Against Iwu

 

By Tony Orilade /Abuja

Jabi District of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, houses the secretariat of the Abuja Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalist, NUJ. The council secretariat was taken over last Monday by a group of lawyers who came with anti-Iwu banners and posters claiming they had received over 10 million petitions urging President Umaru Yar’Adua not only to sack the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu, but also to prosecute him for electoral offences.

 

Tagged “Iwu- Must- Go” campaign, the national coordinator, Barrister Benedict Ezeagu told TheNEWS, that the exercise will be taken to all the states of the federation. According to him, it was not only necessary to sack Iwu but prosecute him for conducting one of the worst general elections in Africa and for squandering N54.5 billion on a charade called April, 2007 general elections.

Ezeagu is not done, he is also asking more Nigerians to send in their petitions through the e-mail address, accessrealife@yahoo.com. Besides, he said they can also send their petition to 64, Alli Akilu Crescent at Aso Villa, Abuja . Ezeagu said he would send those petitions demanding for the immediate sack and prosecution of Maurice Iwu to the presidency and the National Assembly. His argument was that over 100 national and state House of Assembly elections and governorship election results declared by Iwu had been nullified by various election tribunals. “This is outside the over 2,000 Nigerians killed in the so-called April 2007 general elections. Our effort at democratic leadership was thwarted by the devastating rate of electoral robbery called the April, 2007 general elections. We say no to electoral brigandage and the Maurice Iwu-led INEC. We say yes to the immediate implementation of the Uwais’ electoral recommendations,” Ezeagu told this magazine last week.Also on last Monday, the various state governors met in Abuja with President Umaru Yar’Adua to chart the way forward for the country. This magazine gathered that the meeting discussed electoral reforms, scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), and the continued stay of INEC Chairman in office. The vocal voices at the meeting which was made up of about 20 governors and four deputy governors were Adams Oshiomhole, Peter Obi and Olusegun Mimiko of Edo, Anambra and Ondo states respectively. The other governors at the meeting were those of Lagos, Kwara, Jigawa, Oyo, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kano , Taraba, Jigawa, and Enugu . The four deputy governors at the meeting were those of Delta, Osun, Kogi and Zamfara states.

Oshiomhole had called on Nigerians to take over the electoral reform process and drive it because Nigerians can not have another fraudulent election in 2011. ‘‘It would be one rigging too many. And I am not sure who would survive it. I feel ashamed that our sister country, Ghana , can organise election without dragging their judiciary into it. Of course, South Africa is a success story. They can even replace their president and get him to resign without gun being fired, the Edo state governor had said recently in Lagos .

Like Oshiomhole, Governor Obi also said Iwu must be sacked. His words: “Iwu-led INEC has never conducted a free and fair election, instead, he has always conducted do-or-die elections which favour the ruling PDP by stealing the votes of the electorate. He must be sacked”. He continued: “I am speaking the minds of the people of Anambra State who believe in free and fair elections. Bring the Ghana electoral officers who conducted the elections there to Nigeria to come and help us conduct our elections in 2011″. Iwu, however, had some support in the National Assembly, as some Senators, among them Chairman of the Senate Committee on the (INEC), Senator Isiaka Adeleke, last Monday rose in defence of Prof. Iwu, saying his tenure had not expired and therefore those agitating for his sack should look elsewhere. To them, his tenure would only expire in June 2010.

Sen. Isiaka’s comment came on the heels of the revelation by Lagos-based lawyer and President of the West African Bar Association (WABA), Mr. Femi Falana, that Iwu’s continued stay in office was illegal. Falana had threatened to head for court for judicial interpretation of the tenureship of Iwu. He had stated that the tenure of Iwu, who was appointed as INEC commissioner in 2003 and named chairman of the Commission in 2005, “expired last August by effluxion of time.”

Adeleke said at a news conference he addressed: “It is a fact that Section 155 of the 1999 constitution, if you read along Section 169 (3) (it is a fact that the tenure) stipulates five years for those holding that office. “But the fact of the case was that Iwu was appointed in June 2005 by Mr. President. He was screened by the Senate on the 1st of June 2005 and he was duly sworn in by Mr. President on June 13th 2005. What this means in effect is that his term has not expired. If you add five years to June 13th 2005, I believe by simple arithmetic, it would give you June 13th 2010.”

Senator Ikechukwu Obiorah, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing and Urban Development, who aligns with his colleague, Adeleke, alleged underhand schemes by those he described as turncoat progressives to weaken the tenure of Iwu. “They want to remove Iwu, but the only thing they don’t want to do is that they don’t want to follow the procedure and we are saying that if you want to remove this man, the only way you can do it is to follow strict constitutional provisions regarding his removal and that is by an address supported by two-third majority.”

He maintained that his membership of the Commission ceased to be as soon as he became chairman. “His appointment as member is not contiguous to his appointment as chairman and that is the mistake they are making. Iwu was screened on the 1st of June 2005 and grilled for over two and a half hours after which the Senate confirmed his appointment and he was subsequently sworn in on the 13th of June 2005. That means that his tenure will not expire until June 2010. If for one reason, a member is appointed from membership to chairmanship, it is a totally different procedure and that means you have to go for Senate confirmation and you have to be sworn in again. According to Obiorah the act of the confirmation and the swearing-in shows that it is a totally new appointment and that the new appointment is to last for five years.

But Falana said the Senator’s statement was a demonstration of the ignorance of the relevant provisions of the Constitution. “We challenge Adeleke and other supporters of Iwu to point to a particular section of the constitution that the INEC chairman has five-year tenure regardless of when he became chairman”. He said Senator Adeleke was deliberately silent on the fact that Iwu was appointed in August, 2003 as a commissioner. To Falana, by the combined effect of sections 155 and 161 of the constitution, any reference to the member of INEC shall include a reference to the chairman of INEC. “To accept the interpretation of Adeleke is to suggest that Iwu is entitled to seven-year tenure contrary to the clear and unambiguous provision of the constitution which stipulates 5-year tenure of the chairman and members of INEC”, Falana said.

Also basing his argument on the provision which applies to the date a person is appointed into the commission and not the day he becomes the chairman, Falana, had been quoted in a national daily saying: “Contrary to his empty grandstanding and the embarrassing ignorance of members of the National Assembly, Iwu’s term expired last August by effluxion of time.” Section 155 (1) (c) states: “A person who is a member of any of the bodies established as aforesaid (in Section 153 (1)) shall, subject to the provisions of this part, remain a member thereof- (c) in the case of a person who is a member otherwise than as ex-officio member or otherwise than by virtue of his having previously held an office, for a period of five years from the date of his appointment”. Also, Section 161(c) states that: “… Any reference to ‘member’ of a body established by Section 153 of this Constitution shall be construed as including a reference to the chairman of that body.”

Already, this magazine gathered that the President is said to have called for legal advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mike Aondoakaa (SAN), over the tenure of the INEC chair. This, we gathered, is for the President to get the correct position of the law on the tenure of Iwu. “It has become a problem but only the Attorney-General of the Federation could give a legal opinion on the matter. Although with the White Paper on Electoral Reform, Iwu’s days are numbered, but it is necessary to clear the air on this tenure controversy. The truth is that Yar’Adua will ask Iwu to leave once it is established that he has overstayed in office. We are all waiting for legal advice from the AGF. The President sought AGF’s advice to avoid unnecessary legal dispute on Iwu’s tenure. The President is also trying to avoid any conflict with the National Assembly on the matter.”

A call to INEC’s Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Mr. Andy Ezeani did not go through. A message sent to his phone was also not replied, but a source who pleaded anonymity told this magazine that the tenure of Iwu will expire in May 2010 because he was appointed as chairman of INEC in May, 2005. Besides the Iwu controversy, another row may soon dog INEC. One of its members, Dr. Muhammed Jumari from the North West is expected to quit on 21 April. His exit, according to reports credited to The Nation, would further deplete the ranks of INEC. By the time he leaves, only four commissioners will be left in INEC, as against 12 members which the Constitution stipulates. The remaining commissioners will be three from South-East and one, South West. With only four commissioners left, the commission will be unable to form a quorum. Section 159(1) of the Constitution stipulates: “The quorum for a meeting…shall be not less than one-third of the total number of members…at the date of the meeting.” By virtue of the Constitution, one-third of 13 will be five, a number which the commission won’t be able to meet after Jumari’s exit.

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