INEC’s contractor is an APC senatorial candidate - Prof Yakubu reportedly admits
- Professor Mahmood Yakubu reportedly admits that a contractor of the commission is an APC senatorial candidate in Niger state
- Yakubu, however, said Mohammed Musa's company had been working for INEC since 2011
- The INEC chairman assures further that the system or the process would not be compromised as feared by some Nigerians
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has reportedly confirmed Senator Mohammed Musa, a senatorial candidate in Niger state, as a registered contractor of the commission.
Legit.ng learnt that Yakubu confirmed this on Saturday, February 16, the day the presidential election was supposed to hold but was postponed.
The Nigerian Tribune reports that Yakubu, at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, admitted that the Musa, a candidate for Niger East senatorial district, was a registered contractor with the electoral umpire.
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“Yes, I am aware. That company has been working with the commission since 2011.
“I assure you that we have a strict system. No electoral officer will be compromised. The integrity of the process is protected,” Yakubu reportedly said when he was asked by a former aviation minister, Osita Chidoka, who stood in for the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus.
The INEC chairman, however, assured Nigerians that it would not affect the credibility of the electoral process.
The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, also confirmed that Musa is a member of the APC.
Yakubu’s confirmation comes after the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, hinted in a statement that the managing director of Activate Technologies Limited, Mohammed Sani Musa, whose company supplied the machines used in printing the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), is not just a member of the APC, but a candidate in the party.
Atiku had said: “Given that Mr Musa’s previous company, Act Technologies, had a contract to supply and install PVC card printers in the INEC Headquarters, it does beg the question why Mr Musa’s new company, Activate Technologies, was given a subsequent contract to print PVC cards itself?
“Other investigations have revealed that an employee and director of Activate Technologies and an APC member, Mr Mohammed Keffi, was filmed at Abuja Airport domestic departure lounge on December 29, opening an official INEC envelope and then handling multiple ballot forms which he was checking off against his mobile phone.
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“While Sani Musa has the right to hold any public office in spite of his line of business, it is morally unjustifiable to allow a well-known supplier of sensitive INEC materials to partake in an election in which the key materials to be used for the poll were supplied by him.”
Legit.ng earlier reported that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers called on the international community to continue to mount pressure on the federal government and INEC to ensure the conduct of credible and peaceful elections across the country, including his state.
In a statement personally signed by Wike on the postponement of the elections in Nigeria and obtained by Legit.ng, said on Sunday, February 17, the governor said that the original plan of the APC-led federal government was to isolate Rivers and truncate the elections in the state.
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Source: Legit.ng
