ACN URGES JONATHAN TO WITHDRAW NOMINATIONS OF PARTY MEMBERS AS RECS

By NBF News

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to withdraw the nominations he has made to replace eight of the 13 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) whose tenure has expired, since most of those being proposed as RECs have been found to be card-carrying members of the PDP.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President should fill the slots through a transparent process that will lend credence to his transformation agenda, and will also allow him to adopt at least part of the recommendations of the Justice Uwais Panel on electoral reform.

It expressed total disappointment at the system adopted by the President to replace the RECs whose tenure has expired, saying Nigerians had expected him to seize the opportunity handed to him by the expiration of the tenure to start showing Nigerians his commitment to transparency and probity in the country's electoral process.

'Nigerians had expected that in line with some of the recommendations of the Justice Uwais panel, the President would have caused the vacant posts of the RECs to be advertised and the names of those short-listed published so that Nigerians can scrutinize them before they are interviewed and the successful ones among them appointed.

'Rather, the President opted to stick to the old, discredited way of doing things by handpicking known members and sympathizers of the PDP. This is wrong and calls to question the President's commitment to his so-called transformation agenda,' ACN said.

The party particularly described as worrisome and insensitive on the part of the President, his decision to reappoint Dr. George Ada, one of the RECs whose tenure has expired.

'Dr. Ada was a speaker in Cross River House of Assembly during the tenure of Governor Donald Duke; If that is not partisanship, then we need another definition for the word.

The same Dr. Ada presided over the 2007 election (as REC) in Benue state, which threw up David Mark, and it is common knowledge that the state's election tribunal annulled that election.