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Drama as REC says, ‘I left APC in 2015 but campaigned for the party in 2017’

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Members of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were shocked on Tuesday when a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) nominee from Osun State, Raheem Muideen Olalekan, confessed he was once a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Olalekan had appeared before the Committee on Tuesday for screening following his nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari.

But one Oyebade Adebisi had petitioned the Committee and accused the nominee of openly supporting a political party, an action that negated part of constitutional criteria for INEC commissioners.

Based on that allegation, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, had asked the nominee if he was a former member of the APC and when he last appeared at the party’s functions.

In his response, the nominee said he left politics in 2015 to pursue a degree programme in psychology.

When the committee showed him pictures where he was seen campaigning for a particular governorship aspirant in 2017, a mid-drama ensued as Olalekan struggled to explain his role in that episode.

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Finally, he said: “I am a member of the APC. I am a member of the APC and I contested the local government chairmanship in 2013. In 2015, I left politics.

“On the question that says if I was a Director- General of a contestant, Yes, I was DG of a contestant in 2017.”

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