INEC boss Yakubu gives himself pass mark, says elections so far proves INEC not under Buhari, anybody’s influence

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has rebuffed insinuations in some quarters that he has been a puppet of President Muhammadu Buhari.

His critics and the opposition parties have continued to claim that the reason for the increase in electoral violence, vote buying at polls, ballot box snatching and unnecessary time wastage in announcement of election results, are strategies of the present INEC to ensure that the election are tilted to please the President.

However, in his reaction to these allegations and several others, Yakubu who spoke during the opening of a two-day workshop organised by the commission for some journalists in Abuja, refuted the allegations.

The INEC chairman said his lifetime ambition has always been to become a university lecturer and having realised that by God’s grace, that whatever engagement he finds himself doing in life was nothing but a mere bonus. He added that at this point in his life time, he could not be forced into doing what is illegal.

He said, “It is too late to be intimidated by anybody. For what purpose? Directly or indirectly, I have never been approached by anybody to do anything other than what obtains in the law. There is no influence on INEC. The best markers are the elections we have concluded. Which party won what? There is no pressure on me or any of the commissioners”.

Read also: Report indicts INEC, Army, Police of sparking electoral violence in Rivers

Yakubu who condemned the killing of a police officer and other incidences of violence, during December 10 Rivers State rerun elections, said he was confident the security agencies will adequately investigate all violations of the nation’s laws before, during and after the elections including the purported mayhem and brutality said to have been carried out by Nigerian Police.

He therefore promised that the commission will conclude two remaining state and federal assembly rerun elections in Rivers state early next year. “Elections were massively disrupted in a substantial part of Etche Local Government Area which affected two constituencies; the Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency and the Etche II State Constituency for which the Commission will decide on a new date early in the New Year,” Yakubu said.

The INEC under Yakubu had first been plagued by inconclusive elections. There were later widespread allegations that INEC- conducted elections were characterised by vote buying at the polls and late announcement of results, all of which analysts argue diminish the credibility of such elections.

 

 

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