INEC insists Amina Zakari will retain her role despite controversy

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that it has no intention of removing Amina Zakari as the chairperson of the Committee on National Collation Centre ahead of the February 16 presidential election.

Since INEC announced Zakari's appointment, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has branded it as an attempt by the current government of President Muhammadu Buhari to rig the election.

The party alleged that Zakari is the president's blood relation, a claim it has failed to substantiate and that has been denied by Zakari in the past.

While speaking during a phone-in interview on Channel Television's Sunrise Daily on Friday, January 4, 2019, INEC's director of voter education and publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said the outrage over the appointment is unnecessary.

Osaze-Uzzi noted that Zakari has no role whatsoever in the process of results collation, as alleged by the opposition, revealing that her role is merely an administrative one.

He said, "It's a needless controversy, if I may say so. It's basically an administrative committee - a facility management committee, basically. Their role is to go to the International Conference Centre, negotiate with the management about the use of the centre for the period of the election to ensure that all the facilities are working well.

"Don't forget, it's not the collation committee, it's collation centre committee so they're in charge of the physical structure."

Osaze-Uzzi further assured that only INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has the constitutional role as returning officer to be in control of the collation of results for the presidential election.

"The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, by virtue of the constitution and the electoral act, is the returning officer of the country for the presidential election. It is he who decides the validity of votes and any issues dealing with the (election) process," he said.

Osaze-Uzzi said the alarm raised by the opposition over Zakari's appointment will not compel INEC to remove her.

"That's not an issue. It's a needless controversy," he said.