The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has declared that he never called the Abia State Returning Officer to give her a directive.
Instead, Prof. Yakubu said the RO, Professor Nnenna Otiwanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of result in the South East State.
INEC Chairman, Chief Press Secretary CPS, RotimiOyekanmi made this rebuttal in a statement he signed Tuesday, in reaction to the raging controversies trailing Abia State Governorship election held last Saturday.
Oyekanmi’s statement reads in part: “The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner REC of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of AbiaState.
“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the content of the letter should be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.
“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.
“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain”.
Similarly, INEC boss CPS recalled the RO direct conversation with Prof Yakubu.
It’s published below:
“The INEC Presiding Officer In Abia State Nnenna Otihad this to say…
“I’m Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo. I am the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, The people’s mandate shall stand.”
In her words, “I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by the theseprinciples. The pastor in me (she is a Pastor with the RCCG) and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!”
“Then to the shock and surprise of everyone in the hall, she said that the INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, personally called her and gave her directives on guidelines to follow in ensuring that Abia governorship election results were collated based on some criteria but that on her own she has decided that the will of Abiavoters would not be subverted under her watch.
“At that point, she asked the Administrative Secretary to read the message she said that came from the INEC headquarters Abuja.
“There are men and women of integrity in Nigeria. I’ve seen one of them”.
Oyekanmi urged the public to disregard the story as fake news.
Recall that following the controversies, INEC has declared the State’s Governorship election inconclusive.
