North plans to rig 2015 election, Ezeife Says

A former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has alleged that there is a plot to rig the 2015 presidential election in favour of the North.In a statement on Wednesday, Ezeife argued that the South-East, which is President Goodluck Jonathan’s strongest support base, was cheated in the recent distribution of polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission.He said the fact that the South-East was allocated just over 1000 polling units, as against over 7000 units in the North-West was an indication of a definite plan to rig the February 14 presidential election.

He said, “The distribution of polling units by INEC is shocking and does suggest a blatant design to do something sinister and to do it with impunity. In that distribution, the North-West had more than 7000 units, the South-East was given about the same number of polling units as Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, just a little more than 1000 units.

“The new distribution of polling units correlates negatively or inversely with distribution of votes for Jonathan in 2011 presidential election. The South- East is considered Mr. President’s strongest support base. Is that why it received this low, indeed insultingly low allocation of polling units? If this distribution of polling units is not blatant indication of a definite plan to rig the 2015 presidential election, then we should doubt that one plus one is two.”

He said the plot might be the source of the confidence some northern politicians have expressed ahead of the 2015 presidential election.

Ezeife added the 2014 National Conference had provided the design for a new Nigeria in which all ethnic nationalities can maximise their true interests.

He urged the President to push for the people’s confirmation of the decisions of the conference, saying that should take precedence over the 2015 election.