In preparation for next month’s elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, inaugurated two ad hoc committees for the elections. However, the appointment of Amina Zakari as Head of the Collation Committee has reignited allegations of fraud from the major opposition, the People’s Democratic Party.
The committees were inaugurated by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in a bid to ensure a seamless electioneering process. One is concerned with logistics and the other with the coordination of the collation process of the presidential election from the International Conference Centre, where the results will be announced.
However, the announcement of Amina Zakari as the official Head of the Collation Centre has raised a couple of eyebrows based on her alleged relationship to the incumbent president and All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time accusations have been levelled against INEC by the PDP because of Zakari’s position at the Commission. The first occured when the executive was removed from the position of Head Electoral Operations and Logistics and moved to the Commission’s Health and Welfare Department at the insistence of the PDP, who accused her of working for the ruling party.
At the time Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP, said: “While Prof. Mahmood Yakubu can no longer be trusted to conduct the 2019 general election, it is public knowledge that Mrs. Amina Zakari, the INEC Director in charge of Operations and ICT, is a direct blood relation of Mr. President and as such, we believe that she cannot be an impartial arbiter in an election involving her uncle.”
Reacting to the latest announcement, the PDP declared that it will not accept Zakari’s recent appointment, accusing the election umpire of colluding with President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The People’s Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization vehemently and unequivocally rejects, in its entirety, the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s blood relation, as head of the collation of results in the same election in which her uncle, President Buhari, is a candidate,” the statement read.
“The appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari constitutes a direct violence against the presidential election and the PDP will not, in any way, whatsoever, accept it. This is the same Amina Zakari who headed the ICT Department of INEC. It will interest Nigerians to note that this is the same Amina Zakari that was alleged to have played some roles in the 2018 governorship election in Osun state.”
Taking direct shots at the Commission’s chairman, the statement noted that the announcement showed he had been compromised ahead of the elections. The PDP also called for the intervention of the National Peace Committee in the issue.
“We, therefore, call on all Nigerians and particularly the National Peace Committee to note that with the appointment of Amina Zakari as head of the collation of presidential results, the INEC chairman is setting the stage for a very huge political crisis, which is capable of derailing our democratic process. We also urge the United Nations and other global democratic institutions to take note of this appointment by the INEC Chairman.”
The opposition party also reiterated that all it is interested in, is seeing that the elections in February are free, fair and credible, without any interruptions or manipulations.
“All we ask for is a free, fair, credible and transparent electoral process in which the votes of Nigerians will not only count but will be seen to have counted.”
Firing back at the opposition party, INEC, through the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, stated that the PDP is hallucinating and running on baseless accusations.
He called on them to provide evidence backing their claims or let the Commission do its job, saying: “Otherwise, the PDP should cure itself of this recurring hallucination which I am sure Nigerians no longer buy. Certainly, INEC is not into the rigging business.”
