Unofficial source has revealed to Elombah.com that a senior staff of the Independent national Electoral Commission [INEC], Mrs. Amina Zakari has fired Electoral Officers that declared Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] candidates winners in the just-concluded Rivers rerun election.
It could be recalled that PDP, some time ago, demanded the removal of the then appointed acting chairperson of INEC, Mrs. Zakari.
Addressing a press conference in his office, PDP’s then loquacious publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the party was disturbed by the development in INEC where Mr. Buhari, who knew all along that the immediate-past INEC Chairman, Mr. Jega, would be leaving office by June 30, but had to wait for him to handover to one of the national commissioners only to reverse it immediately, thereby injecting bad blood in the commission.
Zakari is the first woman to be appointed to the position of the leadership of INEC as substantive Chairman.
President Muhammadu Buhari had meddled in the affairs of the Commission when he reversed former chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega’s decision and appointed Zakari as Acting Chairman.
Zakari, on the other hand, is reportedly a relative of Buhari and claim was widely reported in the Nigerian media as a sign of nepotism by Buhari.
The basis of the claim was an interview with a supporter of then President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai that stated:
“I know that the woman from her childhood.
“Her father worked with me as my Permanent Secretary before later he became the Emir of Kazaure.
“We maintained a cordial relationship until he passed on.
“However, the relationship between him and Buhari is something that I know of.
“Anybody around during that time also can confirm this.
“He (the late Emir) married the senior sister to Buhari and he (Buhari) started his childhood in the late emir’s house.
“The mother of this woman (Zakari) was either the first or second wife.
“Aside from that, Buhari stayed with him for some time in Kazaure. I know that the relationship is true.”
Ms. Zakari was appointed as head of INEC by Buhari hours after its Jega, handed over to Ahmed Wali, a national commissioner there.
Another vocal Nigerian and a columnist of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Ochereome Nnanna has loudly criticised Zakari’s appointed by Buhari, saying:
“How else would you describe the shoddy change of guards we witnessed at the INEC last week?
“On 30th June 2015, Jega’s tenure ended and he handed over the mantle to a National Commissioner, Ambassador Ahmed Wali to hold the forte until the president appointed a new Chairman.
“It will signal the return of the electoral body to the dark days of being tied to the apron strings of (a) the ruling party and (b) the president.
“Amina Zakari is one of the Northern hawks at the INEC.
“She is strongly linked to the APC, and she is a known close ally of the party’s top hats such as Nasir el Rufai and President Buhari whom she calls “Uncle”.
“Along with el Rufai, she was part of the Afri-Projects Consult, which carried out contracts for the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) which Buhari headed under General Sani Abacha.
“As the head of hiring in INEC she has been reported to have favoured the North with staffing during the Commission’s major programmes.
“More importantly, she is an ardent proponent of the discredited 30,000 extra polling units that nearly tore the North and South apart before the 2015 general elections.”
Presently, Elombah.com is standing-by for more reliable informations into the sack of the Electoral Officers.
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