The apex northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on Monday lampooned the Coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams, over his call for the sack of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The OPC leader, according to the ACF, had called for the sack of the INEC boss on the basis of the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC), introduction of card readers and the creation of 30,000 polling units, which he claimed was to the advantage of the north.
The ACF, through its National Publicity Secretary, Muhammadu Ibrahim, in a statement in Kaduna on Monday, noted that the Forum would not have reacted to the OPC leader for obvious reasons.
The group, however, said Adams’ utterance was laughable and pedestrian, noting that the OPC leader lacks the understanding of the Nigerian Constitution and the electoral law.
According to the statement, Adams’ comments betrayed him as ignorant of the digital age where transparency is the hallmark of free, fair and credible elections.
It said the utterances of the OPC leader was not only parochial but portrays him as seeking political relevance.
The ACF said: “it is not the tradition of the Arewa Consultative Forum to respond to such unguarded and misinformed statement by leaders of socio-cultural groups or any individual for that matter on national issues.
“However, we find it necessary to respond to Chief Adams false claim that the creation of additional 30,000 polling units was fraudulently done by INEC to favour the North.
“In fact, based on scientific and statistical analysis of the INEC data, the North was actually shortchanged. Nigeria with a total registered voter figure of 70,383,427 in 2011 and when divided by the proposed INEC 150,000 polling units across the country, every polling units in any state should have 469 voter per unit to make it easier for voters to cast their votes”.
The statement noted that it was as a result of the hue and cry over additional polling units from Southern leaders that forced INEC to create the 30,000 units.
The forum added that the creation of the units would not change the number of registered voters, calling on leaders at all levels to guard their utterances, especially on issues they were not properly informed.
“Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must work towards our common interest. We should strongly emphasize what binds us together and not what divides us”, the ACF added.