Ex-Ivory Coast First Lady , Gbabo appeals jail term

The Chairman of the Independent National  Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has denied allegations that he is under pressure  to resign.

Jega said this at a town hall meeting organised by REINVENT Media and some stakeholders in Abuja on Monday.

The INEC boss said the protests and calls for his resignation by some groups would not deter the commission from delivering a free and fair election to Nigerians.

Jega said, “I have heard of the several calls for me to be removed. In fact, am aware that some groups have been protesting. Well, I have a job to do and I will do it. Nobody has asked me to resign and all of us at INEC are focused on ensuring that this election is free and fair.”

 He added that the commission had put in place measures to prevent multiple voting in the elections.

 Jega said the time lapse between the accreditation and voting exercise was aimed at restricting movement of voters from one polling unit to the other and also ensuring that people would not vote more than once.

 “Multiple voting is unfortunately the factor that has bedeviled many voting exercises in Nigeria. This problem is posed by politicians, who pay voters to vote many times or plan to snatch ballot boxes once the voting exercise starts.

“But the time lapse will ensure that voting takes place and ends in the various polling units at the same time and voters, who want to engage in this fraudulent acts will not be able to move around.

Jega  blamed  political parties in the country for shirking their responsibility of sensitising  the public on the need for them to collect their PVCs, saying they were also stakeholders in the electoral process.

“Many usually think it’s only INEC that should be sensitising  people that they need to collect their PVCs but this is not correct. Political parties have the mandate and responsibility to sensitise voters to pick their PVCs because, if people collect or do not collect, it will affect their electoral fortunes,” he stated.

x-Ivory Coast first lady Simone Gbagbo has appealed the 20-year term she got for her role in post-election violence that killed over 3,000 people, her lawyer announced Monday.
“We lodged an appeal in the highest court,” said defence counsel Habiba Toure. “The procedure is irregular and must be nullified.”
In a surprise decision prosecutors, who had argued Gbagbo should be given 10 years behind bars for her part in the bloody 2010-2011 unrest, announced that they too had lodged an appeal.
“The public prosecutor’s office has filed an appeal,” prosecuting attorney Simon Yabo Odi told AFP, without giving precise grounds for the decision to take the case to the Court of Cassation.
However, Odi rejected any change to the prison term handed down March 10 to Gbagbo, 65, who was jailed by an Assize Court for “undermining state security.”
Ivorian law makes no provision for an appeal against the verdict of an Assize Court in criminal cases.
However, it is possible to turn to the High Court of Cassation for a ruling on the validity of a sentence on the basis of legal procedure, rather than evidence raised during trial.
Gbagbo and 78 fellow defendants were accused of playing roles in the violence that broke out in the country’s economic capital Abidjan when her husband Laurent Gbagbo refused to admit defeat in the December 2010 election.
The vanquished leadership allegedly used brutal militias to attack supporters of the declared winner of the poll, President Alassane Ouattara, but some of his backers are equally accused of atrocities.