A sharp division has appeared in the top echelon of the Peoples Democratic Party over the party’s call for the removal of the Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mrs. Amina Zakari.
While the PDP claimed that the call for her sacking was a position taken by the party at the 403 meeting of members of the National Working Committee, a national officer of the party disagreed, saying that was not correct.
The said meeting was held in Abuja at the party’s headquarters on Wednesday.
In rejecting Zakari, the party claimed it was privy to the fact that the INEC chairperson has a strong relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari and a very prominent of the All Progressive Congress North-West governor. The party alleged that Zakari is collaborating with the ruling party to post Resident Electoral Commissioners of its choice to Kogi and Bayelsa states ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in those states.
The PDP raised the alarm of alleged moves to use the period of Zakari’s stay as head of the commission to tinker with electoral personnel and materials for the two states in favour of the APC.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, in a statement in Abuja on Saturday said President Buhari, in appointing Zakari, failed to take into cognisance the moral call to detach himself from the operation of the electoral body thereby completely eroding the independence of the commission.
He pointed out that the issue at stake was not that of Zakari’s competence or performance in office but that 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.”
But Metuh’s deputy, Mr. Ibrahim Jalo, disagreed. He said he had asked Metuh to produce the minutes of the meeting where such decision was taken.
Jalo, who spoke with our correspondent on Saturday, said while it was good to play the role of opposition, he said such role must be played with decorum.
He said there was no need to create enmity for the opposition party in both the commission and northern Nigeria where Zakari hails from.
He said since the new INEC boss was not appointed into the commission by President Muhammadu Buhari, the party could not object to it because she was promoted to become the acting chairman of the electoral body.
“Zakari was appointed by a member of our party, former President Goodluck Jonathan into the commission and that time, we didn’t raise objection.
“Why now that she was elevated to lead the commission briefly when she is due to retire soon, that we are now talking about her alleged closeness to some people?
“We should be careful of what we say or do. We are begging people to come and join us, yet, by our actions we are creating more enemies.”
While rejecting the PDP allegations on Wednesday, the Presidency said Zakari’s appointment was based on merit.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a statement on Wednesday, said that President Buhari followed due process in appointing Zakari to head the commission in acting capacity.
Metuh however insisted on Saturday that with Zakari’s appointment, the commission 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.
He said, “We however find it astonishing, discouraging and disheartening that the spokesperson of the President will address Nigerians and lie to the entire citizenry that 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 North-West?
Metuh further said, “Whilst the PDP might not be opposed to Mrs. Zakari becoming one out of the numerous national electoral commissioners to be so appointed, we completely reject her being an executive chairman who takes major decisions in an independent electoral commission while having a strong relationship with the President and a prominent APC North-West governor.
“Indeed, never in the history of Nigeria has there been an executive chairman of the electoral body with such strong relationship with the president of the country.”
A member of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Ebenezer Babatope agreed with Metuh.
He said that if it was true that Zakari worked Buhari at the Petroleum Development Fund, there was every likelihood that she would be biased towards the APC.
Babatope said, “I have not seen the party’s arguments against her. But if it is true that she worked with President Buhari at the PTDF, then there is every likely hood that she would be biased against other political parties. Because of this, she ought not to have been appointed in the first place.”
Another BoT member, Shuaib Oyedokun, declined comment, saying he was not privy to circumstances that led to her appointment
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