The party’s position is predicated on reports that Amina Zakari is related to President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to a statement on Friday, the party claimed that the APC seeks to use Amina Zakari as a tool to rig the forthcoming election,
It said, “Having been rejected by Nigerians, Buhari is now using her as virus to compromise the independence of the commission, manipulate the electoral process and rig the Presidential election for him”.
The PPCO held that a credible electoral commission must be completely impartial, transparent, totally independent and immune from external control by interested entities.
They claimed that “These are qualities INEC can no longer lay claim to as long as Amina Zakari remains a member of the commission”.
“By foisting Mrs. Amina Zakari to lead the final process of the election, President Buhari is seeking a way to annex INEC, practically, take over the collation of results, and announce himself the winner” the opposition party alleged.
Zakari In Alleged Secret Meeting
The PDP also said its attention has been brought to a secret meeting led by Zakari and other top INEC officials.
According to the party, the INEC officials met with “members of the Buhari Campaign Organization (BCO) in Abuja on ways to introduce the controversial Incidence Form under a new name and use such to manipulate the collation of results”.
The party called on all Nigerians and the international community to pay close attention to the events that lead up to the presidential elections.
Amina Zakari Is Not Related To Buhari
Aliyu Abdullahi, the deputy media director of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, has said that contrary to the claims made by the PDP, Amina Zakari is not a blood relative of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Amina Zakari was appointed on Thursday to chair the INEC Committee on Collation Centre, a development that stirred debate across the country, with the opposition party claiming that Amina is a niece to the president.
In dismissing claims made by the PDP, Aliyu Abdullahi who was guest on Sunrise Daily argued that the PDP is misinforming Nigerians.
According to Aliyu, “the PDP are crying wolf and are trying to misinform Nigerians because Amina Zakari is not a blood relation of President Muhammadu Buhari”.
Daring the PDP to prove him wrong, Aliyu said the President is from Daura in Katsina state while Amina Zakari is from Jigawa state.
He further argued that the outcry over Zakari’s new appointment is poor show by the PDP, especially because she was appointed “a national commissioner of the INEC by the previous administration led by Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan since 2011”.
Aliyu further argued that he sees no bias in Zakari’s appointment owing to the fact that she has been in the INEC for quite a while, hence her being chosen to chair the collation committee is most likely based on her years of experience.
peaking on what he thinks Zakari’s new role entails, Aliyu said, “I want to believe that her being chairman of this committee does not have to do with the issue of announcing the results or even accepting or collecting the results from the returning officers”.
He said the INEC chairman is by law the authorized person to announce election results “and he will not abdicate his responsibility”.
“What Amina’s role seems to be to my own understanding is purely an administrative and logistics support and that may be informed by her experience, she is the longest-serving commissioner among these sets of commissioners,” Aliyu stressed.
He added, “She has witnessed the last election as a national commissioner, she is in charge of welfare so naturally setting-up the venue, administration, and support of the collation center would be in her domain”.
Aliyu said the PDP should be more concerned about “is the strengthening of this institution which is supposed to be an independent one, such that individuals will not consider applying any unwholesome caprices”.
The Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation spokesman said more is expected of the PDP, other than putting the nation in a bad light as the international community watches Nigeria as the country heads to the polls.
Channels TV
0 Comments