The leadership of PDP has rejected the appointment of Mrs
Amina Zakari as the acting Chairman of INEC.
At a press briefing in Abuja today July 1st, the National
Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the PDP was rejecting Mrs
Zakari's appointment based on her closeness to the Presidency as well as one of
the APC governors. Mr Metuh also said that due process was not followed for her
selection as acting chairman.
"The PDP has declared the appointment of Mrs. Amina
Zakari as unacceptable and demand that President Buhari changes her
immediately. The PDP is particularly disturbed by the development in INEC where
President Buhari, who knew all along that the immediate-past INEC Chairman,
Prof Attahiru Jega would be leaving office by June 30, had to wait for him to
handover to one of the national commissioners only to reverse it immediately,
thereby injecting bad blood in the commission.
The situation in INEC since the PDP government reformed and
granted it operational autonomy has been peaceful, but Tuesday’s untidy
overruling of Prof. Jega and appointing of Mrs. Amina Zakari as acting chairman
which, we gathered was influenced by personal relationship with the Presidency
and one of the new governors of the North West, ostensibly to pave the way for
the APC at the electoral tribunals, has completely eroded public trust in the
commission.
Whereas the PDP recognises the right and powers of the
President to appoint the Chairman of INEC and the Accountant General of the
Federation (AGF), we reject attempts as in the case of the AGF to paint the
process as transparent and objective when such was not the case, but brought to
question the sincerity and commitment of the present administration to due
process.
In INEC, the PDP states in unequivocal terms that we cannot, as
critical stakeholders fold our hands and watch while the Presidency perpetuates
actions that diminish the independence of the electoral commission.
Our reasons include the fact that due process was not
observed in the appointment and that Mrs. Zakari has shown in the last
elections that she is manifestly bias in favour of the APC. Finally, her appointment
is a clear case of nepotism. We ask, if they trusted Prof. Jega and commended
him for conducting free and fair elections, why would they not trust him on who
to hold forth in the commission until a substantive chairman is appointed,
rather than appointing someone who is retiring from the commission in the next
three weeks?” he said
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