A national commissioner at the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zakari has been appointed to head the collation centre of the elections.
Zakari was appointed to head the committee on collation centre, one of the two committees for the election which the commission inaugurated on Thursday in Abuja.
Speaking during the inauguration, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said the committee shall be responsible for the national collation centre – the International Conference Centre – from where results of the Presidential election will be announced.
“It will serve as the secretariat for collation of results and venue for briefing of international observers and the media,” he said.
The national commissioner was once appointed acting chairman of INEC. She had been at the commission’s department of health and welfare after being redeployed as the head of electoral operations and logistics.
Her redeployment took place after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused her of working for President Muhammadu Buhari and demanded that she be moved.
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party has kicked against her appointment, describing her as a relative of President Muhammadu Buhari and an invitation to violence.
At a press conference in Abuja, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP presidential campaign, said the party would not accept Zakari’s appointment.
He said the appointment “constitutes a direct violence against the presidential election and there is no way votes cast by Nigerians will count”, with her as head of the collation center.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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 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.”
Ologbondiyan said for their to be a peaceful election, the INEC chairman 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,” he added.
“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.”
