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2019: S’South, S’West, M’Belt leaders pass no confidence vote on INEC boss Yakubu

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INEC staff caught on camera seeking bribe to register voters (Video)

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, a vote of no confidence has been passed on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, by Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum.

The leaders who want the INEC boss removed with immediate effect said they are afraid he may never conduct free and fair elections in 2019.

The group further anchored their fears on the alleged “bug of nepotism and sectionalism” that has characterised President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which according to them has also “eaten up the leadership” of the electoral body.

The forum insisted during a press conference in Abuja on Sunday that there were “accumulated indications” that Yakubu might rig the election in favour of President Buhari.

Those in attendance at the meeting included Chief Edwin Clark, representing the South-South, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, South-West; Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, South-East; Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (retd.), Middle Belt; Air Commodore Nkanga Idongesit, South-South, and others.

Idongesit, who stated the group’s demand, posited that keeping the service chiefs who ought to have retired and keeping Yakubu as INEC boss were distrustful.

He said, “From 1960 till date, only President Muhammadu Buhari has been audacious to pick only people who are either his relations or of the same ethnic stock with him to lead the electoral body.

“The Balewa Government headed by a Northerner appointed Prof. Eyo Ita Esua from the South, who was in charge of the Federal Electoral Commission from 1960-66; Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, set up the Federal Electoral Commission under Michael Ani (1976-1979). When Dr Goodluck Jonathan came in from the South-South, he appointed Prof. Attahiru Jega from the North-West (June 2010-Oct. 2015).”

According to the group, Buhari has been the only Nigerian leader to appoint his relation from the North-West, Mrs Amina Zakari, as the acting INEC chairman when he became President in 2015 before he appointed Yakubu from the North-East as a substantive chairman.

The forum added, “The relationship between the powerful Amina Zakari and the INEC chairman is so strong that it has the tendency to influence the outcome of the elections in favour of the appointee.”

The leaders at the conference also attacked the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, for demanding that states that had enacted the anti-open grazing law should suspend it.

READ ALSO: A corrupt gang of elites has been at war with Buhari, an ‘honest man of humble origins’— Presidency

Describing the comment as an obnoxious directive, the forum called on Dan-Ali to immediately withdraw the statement, noting that the shielding of armed herdsmen by the Federal Government was the cause of tension in the country, and may lead to anarchy if care is not taken.

“The shielding of Fulani killer-herdsmen remains the strongest flashpoint of invitation to chaos and anarchy in our country as people would not continue to fold their arms forever as they are being killed with the government unwilling to lift a finger in their defence.

“We demand the immediate withdrawal of this obnoxious directive and for the Federal Government to stop the killings going on and promptly arrest those behind the killings so far for immediate prosecution,” the leaders said.

 

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