Chief Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State has said the current chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, would have been an obstacle to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 elections if he were in charge at the time.
He said this while speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday night.
Amaechi, a founding member of the APC, hailed the former INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, for what he described as a transparent and credible electoral process that saw APC’s emergence as a political force and eventual victory in 2015.
He said: “The current chairman of INEC, if he was the chairman of INEC in 2015, we would not have won. That’s an important point. May God bless (Attahiru) Jega. Because the ground rules were clear. The current chairman of INEC can only be compared to Iwu.
“When we were to register APC, Jega opened the door and we complied with the registration requirements. He got APC registered. The current man, if you comply with all these, he would not register you.”
The former minister of transport further alleged that INEC under Yakubu is already showing signs of bias.
“Already, INEC is biased. So, the only thing I can tell you now is that, looking at the way Nigeria has run the election, even the Option A4 led us forward. At least a lot of transparency. You were sure of what was going on. Then we came back to meet people like Iwu and others and the current one and things got worse.
“So, you don’t know whether to say we are progressing or we are regressing. There’s a state capture using the electoral institution as a machine.”