I will not compromise – Nnamani

GOVERNOR Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said that former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, is unfit to chair the Constitution and Electoral Reform Committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governor said this at the South West public hearing on constitution and electoral reform held on Wednesday at the June 12 Cultural Centre that Nnamani, who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would influenced by political affiliation.

Reacting, Nnamani, denounced the governor’s claim by saying that the report of the committee would not favour any political party.

Fayose represented by a member of the state House of Assembly, Dr Samuel Omotosho, noted that the country needed a genuine electoral reform, identifying the composition of the committee, the Independent National Electoral Commission, all security agencies as the problem confronting the nation’s electoral reform process.

The meeting had in attendance governors from Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, the representative of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

“If this government is actually serious about electoral reform, then the chairman of this committee should resign and allow an independent person to take over. Senator (Dr) 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 inconclusiveness that we have at the moment.

“The only time this country made an attempt at a reliable electoral reform was during the tenure of President Umaru Yar’Adua who appointed retired Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais as the chairman. This singular move gave the panel credibility, widespread acceptability and massive supports from all over the country and across political divides.

“Such cannot be said of this panel that is overshadowed with massive moral burdens and conflict of interest as a result of the chairman being a card-carrying member of APC. Any reform from such encapsulation can as well be said to be dead on arrival.”

Nnamani promised that he would not compromise in any form saying, “It doesn’t require any intelligence to criticise, the Governor of Ekiti State feels that since Nnamani is no more in PDP and since he is now in APC, he is going to make sure that the report that would be presented would favour APC. That doesn’t make sense because the report will still go to Mr President who is also a member of a political party and for it to also go to the National Assembly.

“So far, we didn’t have independent candidates in the National Assembly, they all belong to political parties, but you don’t go there to talk about the party, it concerns the people. It is the people that will legitimise what we agreed upon here, it is not the political parties.

“Anybody who has anything against me in terms of compromise, feel free to report. The person that would sign the bill into an act belongs to a party and members of the National Assembly that would deliberate and come up with final Electoral Act; each of them has a political party.”