Election Shift: You lied about weather, minister tells INEC

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, on Sunday said the country’s weather was good for flight operations on the eve of the elections, contradicting claims made by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

Yakubu on Saturday blamed the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections on bad weather which affected flight operations.

But speaking via his verified Twitter handle on Sunday, Sirika tweeted that INEC should say something else instead of using weather as an excuse.

The minister also stated that all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period and further gave thumbs-down to INEC in his tweets.



“INEC should say something else as weather was good for flight operations on the eve of elections, similarly all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period,” Sirika tweeted on Sunday.

However, the commission insisted that the weather was bad some days before the election day.

It said it did not claim that the weather was bad either on Saturday or Friday.

Spokesman for the electoral body, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzezi, who spoke with one of our correspondents, insisted that the commission was not lying.

He said, “Did we say weather was bad on Saturday or Friday? No, we said days before the election and we stand by that.”