The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reiterated its opposition to the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari as the acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The party said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisah Metuh, that it resolved at its 403rd National Working Committee that it will continue to demand Zakari’s removal despite unwarranted attacks on its officials by the Presidency.
According to the PDP, it is privy to the fact that “Mrs. Zakari who has a strong relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari and a very prominent APC Northwest governor is collaborating with the ruling party to post Resident Electoral Commissioners of its choice to Kogi and Bayelsa ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in those states.”
It also believes that the ruling All Progressives Congress want to use the period of Mrs. Zakari’s stay as head of the commission to tinker with electoral personnel and materials for the two states in favour of the APC. Metuh in a statement on Saturday said “President Buhari, in appointing Mrs. Zakari, failed to take into cognizance the moral call to detach himself from the operation of the electoral body thereby completely eroding the independence of the commission.
PDP said that the issue at stake is not that of Mrs. Zakari’s competence or performance in office but the fact of nepotism and her closeness to the President and some key APC leaders, which calls into question the independence of the electoral body under her.
“We want Nigerians to know that with this appointment, INEC has been stripped of its independence and can no longer command the confidence and respect of the citizens and all other critical stakeholders in the nation’s electoral process.
“We however find it astonishing, discouraging and disheartening that the spokesperson of the President will address Nigerians and lie to the entire citizenry that Mrs. Zakari never had any relationship with the President or an APC Governor in the Northwest. This is the height of deception coming from the respected office of the President of our dear country.
“We ask, is the spokesperson of the President, oblivious of the public fact that the Acting Chairman of INEC was once a staff of Afri-Project Consortium, a company well associated with the President?
“Is he by any means feigning ignorance of the fact that Mrs. Zakari also worked in the past as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and later, that of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Federal Capital Development Authority, then under a current APC governor of the Northwest?
“How much of Mrs. Zakari’s roles in the last general elections does the spokesperson of the President, who has just been appointed, know to warrant his brazen defence?
“Even where we concede to the worn-out argument that the President has the powers to appoint any person he deems fit as the INEC Chairman, does moral obligation not demand that in doing so he should take into cognizance the sensitivity of the position? Otherwise he can as well appoint his wife or brother as the electoral umpire on an argument of merit.”
