How Buhari, INEC boss met, appointed ‘niece’ head election collection centre —Ex-APC spokesman

A former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has revealed how Amina Zakari was appointed head collection centre for election after an alleged clandestine meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.

Frank, who made the claim in a statement on Friday in Abuja, alleged that the meeting took place at the Glass House inside the Aso Rock Villa in the early hours of Thursday before Mrs. Zakari was announced head collection centre for election.

The appointment of Zakari, alleged to be a niece to President Buhari as head, INEC’s Advisory Committee and Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee on Thursday, has continued to generate reactions from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some other Nigerians.

They are alleging that the development was another plot by President Buhari to compromise the coming 2019 general elections.

In his reaction, Frank claimed he was reliably informed that prior to the inauguration, that INEC chairman and Zakari were smuggled into the villa at about 12.30am on Thursday and that President Buhari in company of his few trusted aides later joined them inside the Glass House for the meeting.

According to Frank, Yakubu arrived for the meeting, which supposedly lasted for 45 minutes in a black Peugeot 508, wearing a blue caftan while Zakari came in a black Prado SUV, wearing a Jalabiya.

Zakari was INEC’s head of electoral operations and logistics before she was redeployed to the department of health and welfare in October 12, 2018, following public outcry over her alleged partisan posture in various elections conducted when she was head of operations and logistics at INEC.

Frank, who accused Zakari of working for the re-election of her supposed uncle – Buhari – and the APC, said what happened during Edo, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and other rerun elections that she supervised was obvious of her goal.

He therefore called on the INEC chairman to resign his appointment for allegedly attending such a clandestine meeting and plotting to compromise the forthcoming presidential election in favour of Buhari.

He said, “A man who can succumb to pressure and brazenly compromise to further the desire of a candidate in an election cannot be trusted to be impartial during a general election with high stakes. I think he needs to undergo a test for codeine and tramadol abuse to think that Nigerians can be fooled that Zakari’s recent appointment is not a back door move to make her relevant in caring for Buhari’s interests during the Presidential elections.

READ ALSO: AMINA ZAKARI: Ezekwesili fumes, warns of grave consequence

“… though Buhari benefitted from a free, fair and credible elections in 2015, he is not ready to advance the nation’s democracy by sticking to free and fair elections this time.

“This is largely why he has refused to signed the amended Electoral Act 2010 and has now shopped for his Neice to oversee the hatchet job of rigging him back to power.

“Buhari is running away from a free and fair election. He is depending on INEC and the security forces to allocate votes to him. That is why he refused to sign the amended Electoral Act.

“As a perpetual law breaker, he has again broken the law by refusing to allow the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to go on retirement after spending his ‘overly doctored 35 mandatory years’ in the service of the country as a Police Officer,” he said.

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