Ezekwesili accuses INEC boss of joining Buhari in conspiracy to steal election, cause crisis

Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Obiageli Ezekwesili, has attacked the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, and President Muhammadu Buhari over Amina Zakari’s new appointment.

She asked Yakubu to reverse the appointment of Zakari, alleged to be a relative of President Buhari, as the chairperson of the commission’s Results Collation Centre in the February 2019 elections.

According to her, by that appointment Yakubu apparently bowed to President Buhari’s clear determination to allegedly not only “rig but to steal the 2019 presidential election and throw the country into crisis,”

Ezekwesili stated this in a press statement on Saturday in response to the announcement of Zakari on Thursday as the head, INEC’s Results Collation Centre for elections.

The outspoken presidential candidate insisted that the appointment was political corruption, “considering that having a relation of the President who is a contestant in the February 2019 presidential election amounts to an apparent Conflict-of-Interest situation.

“The INEC chairman has obviously bowed to President Buhari’s visible and increasingly brazen determination to not just rig but to steal the 2019 presidential election and throw the country into crisis. Or how else can one describe this repugnant action of placing the President’s niece, Mrs Amina Zakari, at the head of the centre for collation of election results?

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“The President and INEC chairman should know that this extremely repugnant and provocative act of political corruption that seeks to undermine our democracy and destabilise the country shall be resisted by all patriotic Nigerians.

“I caution the INEC chairman and the Presidency to reverse this shameful posting immediately and safeguard the integrity of the 2019 elections,” the statement read.

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