Atiku, Iwu in war of words - You are inciting Nigerians – Iwu

Lanre Adewole and Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 05.02.2008

AN end appears not to be in sight to the battle of wits between former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, as they are now engaged in a war of words over the 2007 general election.

Atiku, apparently reacting to the allegation that his recent attack on Iwu “speaks of a slide to a dangerous level of frustration and desperation, had on Mondaylambasted Iwu, advising him to bury his head in shame over the conduct of the election in which he (Atiku) contested for the presidency on the ticket of the Action Congress (AC).

Maintaining that the election was fraught with sundry irregularities, a reason Atiku is currently challenging its result before the election petition tribunal, the former vice-president berated him for conducting such an election.

“In a saner society, a man like Iwu who has so recklessly betrayed public trust will hide his head in shame while awaiting his well deserved punishment,” he said in a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Garba Shehu.

Iwu had on Sunday through his Chief Press Secretary, Andy Ezeani, charged at the former vice-president, accusing him of orchestrating a series of attacks against him.

In a statement issued by Ezeani, Iwu had said: “The recent series of personalised assaults on Prof. Maurice Iwu not only reflect a new height of desperation, but are clearly another deliberate attempt by Alhaji Atiku to mislead Nigerians and incite them against the person of the INEC chairman. Such machinations will continue to fail.

“Ordinarily, we would not be responding to inflammatory media statements by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, considering that the issues on which he makes rash comments are still in court, we are, however, compelled at this juncture to make this intervention, to set the records straight and to alert Nigerians to the dangers of the falsehood they are being fed with.

“While we are not bothered by heavily funded media attacks on the INEC chairman, the matter assumes a worrisome dimension when Alhaji Atiku Abubakar goes to the extent of calling Prof. Maurice Iwu a liar. The development speaks of a slide to a dangerous level of frustration and desperation.

“When he filed petitions before the presidential election tribunal, Atiku had told the court that he was rigged out of victory. When he could not prove his case, he said he was disenfranchised. Before that could be decided upon, Atiku said the process of conducting the presidential elections and who INEC awarded the contract for the printing of the ballot papers affected his chances of victory.

“We don’t know what he is going to say next now that all his charges against INEC have been punctured. He knows that he is losing grip of the case especially after he read the response by the INEC chairman to the 27 questions posed by him”

Atiku, however, faulted Iwu’s claims, stating that no matter how he tried to defend himself on the irregularities that allegedly characterised the April polls, the INEC boss would not escape the hammer of justice.

Atiku said he was not “rejected through the ballot by Nigerians,” as Iwu claimed, stating that there was no election on April 21, 2007 as, according to him, both the international and local observers, including the international media, had attested to the fraud which he said characterised the general election.

He added, “For Iwu to claim that “Nigerians voted massively against Atiku in an election that was widely described as a farce shows the perfidy and delusion of the INEC leadership. Soon the world will know if it is true, as Iwu has claimed, that Atiku’s charges against INEC “have been punctured” and that Atiku “is losing grip of the case.

“We cannot understand why Iwu has chosen to personalise legal arguments between a petitioner and one of the respondents in the ongoing presidential election trial.

“Atiku has no business with Iwu beyond the fact that he presided over an election commission that proved to be anything but impartial umpire. This is why Atiku in his petition asked the tribunal not only to annul the sham election, but also to commit the shameless and utterly discredited Iwu to jail for betraying our trust and for wasting our resources on a hollow exercise.”