Barely a week ago the news surrounding the newly elected national chairman of the collating committee for 2019 general election was thick as gloom. Since the spiral gossip didn’t yield a much desirable result the drama as taken a new twist.
The alleged niece and INEC National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, who was newly appointed as the National Collation Centre Committee, as a non-governmntal organisation on Sunday disclosed that the husband of the INEC official is the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate in Bauchi South Senatorial election.
In a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, the NGO, Accord Women and Youth Initiative, therefore demanded the immediate resignation of Zakari due to what it termed as conflict of interest.
“Mrs Amina Zakari who is not only a blood relative of the incumbent, President Mohammed Buhari but also married to the APC senatorial candidate of Bauchi South. Therefore, by consanguinity and affinity her hands are tied,” Esther Opaluwah, Executive Director, Accord Women and Youth Initiative, said.
According to the group, the INEC official has failed the neutrality and impartial test, especially on her antecedents in the immediate past elections in the South West where she was in charge of electoral operations and logistics.
This comes as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alerted the National Peace Committee, the United Nations and all world leaders to immediately call President Buhari to order and ensure peaceful, free, fair and credible general elections in February.
Addressing journalists on Sunday in Abuja, Kola Ologbondiyan, Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO), accused the Presidency of overheating the polity with manipulations of INEC, muzzling of free speech and escalated clampdown on opposition and Civil Society Organizations.
According to him, there is no way peace can be guaranteed without a free and fair election with Zakari as head of the National Collation Centre Committee.
“President Buhari’s insistence on having his relation in charge of collation of Presidential election results is completely provocative, a direct affront to the sensibilities of Nigerians and express invitation to crisis of epic proportion, which is capable of truncating the entire electoral process and derailing our hard-earned democracy.
