'INEC is not operating under any external influence'

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that neither he nor the commission is under any external influence or pressure in conducting election in Nigeria.


Yakubu stated this at a capacity development workshop for INEC press corps on Friday in Abuja.

Yakubu, answering question on allegations that the commission was operating under the influence of the presidency and political actors, said there was no influence on the commission.

““There is nothing I am looking for that God has not given to me.

“”I don’t think there is anybody that can influence or intimidate me.

“I have never been approached by anybody to do anything in any way other than what is appropriate.

““I am not under any external pressure, neither are the members of the Commission,” he said.

He said that the outcome of the election so far was a proof that the independence of INEC was not compromised and opposition party still won in majority of the recently conducted elections.

He said that more than 70 per cent of the election conducted by the commission in the recent time was won by opposition parties.

He added that only one out of the 163 elections conducted under his watch has been nullified in the court of the law.