Mahmood Yakubu, chairman Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been labouring to convince critics that the appointment of Amina Zakari as the head of the Presidential election collation for the 2019 general election was done in clear conscience.
Yakubu has explained that Zakari, contrary to all insinuations, is not related to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Zakari, INEC National Commissioner, was Thursday appointed the Chairman of the Presidential Election Collation Committee, a development which sparked a controversy in the build up to the general election.
Her appointment has been opposed by other political parties, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) individuals and groups.
For instance, PDP at a press conference in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan rejected Zakari’s appointment on the grounds that “she is President Muhammadu Buhari’s blood relation”.
Ologbondiyan said such an appointment would assist Buhari, the APC and INEC to rig the presidential election and it could fuel violence, adding that it would be injurious to Nigeria’s democracy.
“Today, we have been informed that Yakubu, apparently in furtherance of the plots to rig the presidential election, has appointed Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the chairperson of INEC Advisory Committee and Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee.
“The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation vehemently and unequivocally rejects, in its entirety, the appointment of Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s blood relation, as the head of the collation of results, in the same election in which his uncle, President Buhari, as a candidate, has displayed a huge desperation to win.
“The appointment of Zakari, who had been openly accused in various quarters as being the link person between INEC and the Buhari Presidency in their schemes to rig the election for President Buhari, constitutes a direct violence against the presidential election and the PDP will not, in any way, whatsoever, accept it”, the PDP Spokesman said.
Similarly, APGA described Zakari’s appointment as a desperate attempt to rig the forthcoming elections and the appointment had shown why President Buhari refused to sign the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill into law.
Mike Angel, the Director of Strategic Communication of the campaign organisation of the party’s presidential candidate, John Gbor said “aside from being nepotistic, it’s highly unethical. It’s a desperate attempt by the APC regime to rig the election wholesale. We can see the reason why President Buhari would not assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill”.
On his part, former Governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose wrote on his twitter handle that, ” instead of INEC appointing Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of President Buhari, as the chairperson of INEC Advisory Committee and Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee, why not just appoint one of the President’s children as INEC chairman”.
“The same @inecnigeria that is promising free and fair elections turning around to appoint a known blood relation of President Buhari, a candidate in the election as head of its Collation Committee? Why are these people so brazen in their plot to impose themselves on Nigerians”.
But in his reaction, Yakubu told journalists in Abuja that, “let me say categorically that she is not related to the President. She is from Jigawa State the President is from Katsina State”.
The INEC Chairman stated that contrary public misconception, Zakari duty as Chairman National Collation Committee is to arrange the venue while he remains the constitutional Collation Officer for the Presidential election, a function he will not share with anyone.
“Let me state very categorically that the responsibility of managing the venue does not in any way involve the collation of results. Under the Nigerian constitution I am the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation and the returning officer in the Presidential election.
“I am not going to share that responsibility with anyone in the Commission. I am absolutely responsible for the coordination of the Secretariat for the collation of results but somebody has to prepare the venue”, Yakubu maintained.
In his reaction, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, observed that the history of Zakari’s Amina’s engagement in INEC has been a subject of “public criticism” for quite some time.
Speaking through the spokesperson of his Campaign Team, Kassim Afegbua, who featured on the Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, he said: “We have seen her roles in previous elections, and so to that effect, we know she is being accused of being partisan in the way and manner she has been conducting herself within the INEC and her responsibility, hence, somebody cannot just come and rub off all that.
“If we say somebody is a niece that means maybe the mom is a sister to President Buhari and this is a daughter to a woman who is a sister to the president.”
According to him, the relationship between Zakari and Buhari was not the main issue, but the standards upon which INEC operates.
“INEC must as a matter of responsibility allow the electoral process to be seen to be transparent, to be devoid of any partisan inclinations to an extent that the participants in the electoral process would see that INEC is fair enough in the way and manner in which they deploy staff (whether ad-hoc or permanent) in the process of conducting elections,” he said.
He pointed out that the beauty of elections and the transparency of it, “is the fact that people who are participants should naturally own it, are buying into your own (INEC’s) decisions and policy framework, so that in the final analysis they will say yes given a level playing field in the respective aspects of the election, INEC has been able to live up to its bidding”.
By the same token, a former All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant, Charles Udeogaranya, also decried the appointment of Amina Zakari as head of collation of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the 2019 general election.
Udeogaranya, now a People’s Democratic Party (PDP), chieftain, described the appointment as a recipe for chaos.
“This is the worst attempt at election result falsification,” he said.
According to him, “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commissioned it first step towards announcing fake and fictitious 2019 election results by appointing President Buhari’s niece, Amina Zakari, as head of INEC’s collation centre.
“The world must step in now and caution INEC over this deadly step as Nigeria will not accept false election results from INEC. INEC must be put on notice regarding the grave danger and consequences of organising anything short of a credible election.
“INEC without hesitation must withdraw this appointment as the 2019 general election stakes are unimaginable high.”
Ayodele Fayose, immediate past governor of Ekiti State, said mockingly, “Instead of INEC appointing, Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of President Buhari, as the Chairperson of INEC Advisory Committee and Presidential election Collation Center Committee, why not just appoint one of the President’s children as INEC Chairman?”
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of Aviation, PDP described the appointment as “outright manipulation.”
According to Fani-Kayode, “Amina Zakari, Buhari’s niece and a member of his staff when he was Chairman of PTF, has been appointed Chairperson of the INEC Advisory Committee & Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee. Do you still believe that there will be a free and fair election in Nigeria on Feb. 16th?”
James Kwen, Abuja
