INEC Chairman Mahmood not honest about 2023 elections, Cardinal Onaiyekan

Bishop Emeritus of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has accused the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, of not telling the truth regarding the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

The revered Cardinal made the accusation while speaking to journalists during the 10th anniversary celebration of the Jesuit Memorial College in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, on Saturday, October 21, 2023.

Onaiyekan caught the figure of a displeased man as he lamented the manner in which things are done in the country. Regarding this year's general elections, the cleric argued that the INEC Chairman is misleading Nigerians with half-truths.

Recall the February 25 election that produced President Bola Tinubu is being contested at the Supreme Court by the two opposition candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi.

The duo have separately claimed that the electoral umpire rigged them out while also saying that Tinubu was not qualified to be declared a winner.

Leaning towards the rigging argument, Onaiyekan said he shed tears when Mahmood said the election went perfectly well.

"When I heard Professor Mahmood on television even yesterday, telling us that everything went perfectly well in January. I shed tears. He knows he was not telling the truth," he told journalists in Port Harcourt.

“I am a religious person and I keep praying to God to forgive us and to show us the truth because if we tell the truth, things will move fast. Nigerians are wonderful and I still hope that things will move fast.

“Whatever the judges may decide, whatever courts may say, at the end of the day, the truth will make us free,” he added.

The clergymen insisted that actions have consequences and there must be a paramount change in how things are done in this part of the world.