Presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, who represents the African Action Congress (AAC) has weighed in on the ongoing controversial issue surrounding President Buhari’s rumored niece, Amina Zakari and her new position as head of election collation centre for INEC.
It appears that PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubaka is not the only candidate who is uncomfortable with the recent development, as Sowore has disclosed that he believes Zakari has no business being appointed in such delicate position in a time like this and should resign as it is the right thing to do
Eventhough Zakari in a recent interview, distanced herself from the niggling allegation that she is bloodily related to Buhari, many have refused to believe her story
Reacting to the speculations, Zakari had said;
“I am not his niece, I am not his cousin. I was appointed on this same particular job by Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010. Prior to that I was appointed an A.S to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, and I did my job perfectly”.
Sowore on Monday during the INEC quarterly consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja said Zakari’s sense of judgement in the line of duty would be compromised, no matter the nature of her relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari.
In his words;
“It is not about the blood relationship. If there is any form of relationship at all, that could influence her sense of judgement. I expected her to do the right thing by stepping aside. It doesn’t have to be blood relationship. There are people who don’t have blood relationship in this world that are closer than people with blood relationship,”
Maintaining that there is enough evidence to prove that Zakari would be biased in the discharge of her duties, Sowore advised her to follow the path of honour and resign from the position.
He said people are not comfortable with her decision to remain in her position in the commission; he also urged the commission to reverse the decision.
On the draft guidelines, he stressed that all political parties must be included in drawing up the guidelines for the regulation of the conduct of the elections.
Speaking at the event, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC Chairman, explained that where the biometric authentication fails, the voter will be required to thumbprint a box next to his/her picture on the register and would be made to enter his/her mobile telephone number before proceeding to vote.
Yakubu said;
“The commission has modified the register of voters for the 2019 general election accordingly. “Consequently, the separate incident form used in previous elections which is only completed by the presiding officer without the involvement of the voter, is now abolished. Similarly the claim that the card reader has been enhanced ro recapture voters’ fingerprints at polling units and automatically overwrite the biometric record on our database is untrue and should be disregarded.”
