Buhari’s niece can’t be INEC’s national collation officer – PDP rejects appointment of Amina Zakari

Ahead of the 2019 elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the appointment of Amina Zakari, a niece of President Muhammadu Buhari, as the chairman of the result collation committee in the exercise.

The PDP presidential campaign council said this in Abuja at a press conference describing Zakari as a blood relation of Buhari. The party also said the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, was creating a self-succession plan for the president.

Speaking at the press conference, Kola Ologbodiyan, the spokesperson of the campaign council, said Zakari, the INEC commissioner in charge of health and welfare, should be rejected because of the allegations against her.

“You will recall that we have been raising the flag on how the Buhari Presidency, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and some individuals at the echelon of INEC have been seeking ways to compromise our electoral processes and open the way for the allocation of fictitious votes to President Muhammadu Buhari, having realized that he cannot win in a credible, free and fair polls.

“Today, we have been informed that the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, apparently in furtherance of the plots to rig the Presidential election, has appointed Mrs Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Chairperson of INEC Advisory Committee and Presidential election collation center committee.

“The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) outrightly, vehemently and unequivocally rejects, in its entirety, the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s blood relation, as the head of the collation of results, in the same election in which his uncle, President Buhari, as a candidate, has displayed a huge desperation to win.

“The appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari, who had been openly accused in various quarters as being the link person between INEC and the Buhari Presidency in their schemes to rig the election for President Buhari, constitutes a direct violence against the Presidential election and the PDP will not, in any way, whatsoever, accept it.

“This is the same Amina Zakari, who headed the ICT department of INEC at the time that department was accused of manipulating the INEC voter register to accommodate fictitious, underage and alien voters, particularly, in remote areas where they plan to allocate and announce conjured votes for President Buhari and the APC.

“It will interest Nigerians to note that this is the same Amina Zakari that was alleged to have played some roles in the 2018 governorship election in Osun state, where the electoral processes were flagrantly abused.

“In appointing Mrs Amina Zakari to head the collation of this presidential election, Prof. Yakubu has confirmed that he has been compromised and that he has already succumbed to pressure by the Buhari Presidency and APC to open the way for the self-succession of President Buhari.

“The fact remains that there is no way Amina Zakari will not allocate votes to her blood relation, President Buhari, whom Nigerians have indicated clearly that they are not ready to return to office as president.

“With Amina Zakari at the head of results collation, there is no way votes cast by Nigerians will count.

“We, therefore, call on all Nigerians and particularly the national peace committee to note that with the appointment of Amina Zakari, as head the collation of presidential results, the INEC chairman is setting the stage for a very huge political crisis, which is capable of derailing our democratic process,” the party said.

Asking the international community to note this alleged anomaly, by the chairman of INEC, the PDP added: “If the INEC Chairman wants a peaceful presidential election, he should, with the speed of light, reverse himself on this appointment.

“In fact, the PPCO reiterates its position that for us to have a peaceful election, Mrs Amina Zakari should not be seen anywhere near any of the 2019 election processes, not to talk of being involved in the collation of presidential results.

“The PDP remains committed to a peaceful and credible process, but we will never, in any way, allow anybody to use any means, under any guise whatsoever, to rig us out in this election. Not after it is clear that Nigerians have attained a consensus to rally behind our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as their next president.

“All we ask for is a free, fair, credible and transparent electoral process in which the votes of Nigerians will not only count but will be seen to have counted.”