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Nnamani, Fayose disagree over composition of electoral reform panel

By Muyiwa Adeyemi (Head South West Bureau) and Charles Coffie Gyamfi (Abeokuta)
23 March 2017   |   4:35 am
The Chairman, Constitutional and Electoral Reforms Committee (CERC), Senator Ken Nnamani and Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, yesterday disagreed on the composition of the Electoral Reform Committee.

Nnamani

• Why I cannot join APC, by Ekiti gov
The Chairman, Constitutional and Electoral Reforms Committee (CERC), Senator Ken Nnamani and Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, yesterday disagreed on the composition of the Electoral Reform Committee.

They expressed divergent views at a public hearing of the committee, held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

At the event, Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun rejected the constitutional provision, which vested the power to create local councils on the Federal Government.

Fayose said with politicians from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) dominating the committee, there is possibility of compromise in their report at the end of the exercise.

The Ekiti State chief executive rejected the composition of the panel, adding that “the reforms amounted to political hallucinations and playing to the gallery.”

Fayose, who was represented by the Chairman, Committee on Information at the state House of Assembly, Samuel Omotoso, emphasised that: “There was no gainsaying that this electoral review body is not needed until the panel is equitable, apolitical and devoid of influence from the powers that be. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

Fayose noted that: “If the President was actually serious about electoral reform, then the chairman of the committee should resign and allow an independent person to take over. Senator Ken Nnamani is a South-East regional leader of APC, and hence incapable of rising above primordial and party sentiments to give us anything different from electoral inclusiveness that we have at the moment.”

But Nnamani disagreed with the governor.

He explained that President Muhammadu Buhari came up with the panel for electoral reforms and it had nothing to do with any particular political party.

He pointed out that he had left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before he was appointed to lead the committee.

“If I have right to belong to any political party, I think what he (Fayose) said is an infringement on my fundamental human rights,” the former Senate President said.

“It does not make sense to say that because I am no longer a member of the PDP that I will compromise. Six months ago, I was with PDP and then nobody is talking about being compromised, now I am in APC and the story is changing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Governor Fayose said he cannot join the APC, even if he leaves the PDP.

Fayose, who spoke at a gathering in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, said the practice of use and dump adopted by the leadership of the APC would not allow him contemplate moving into the party.

In a press statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the governor cited the case of the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, “who worked hard for the victo‎ry of the party in the 2015 general elections in the country and was subsequently abandoned by those he helped to put in power.

“Some people have been making overtures to me to join the APC, but I cannot join them. With what they have repaid somebody like Asiwaju Tinubu? He worked and helped the party to secure victory but has been dumped. That is not a party I would be interested in joining.

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