Amina Zakari, a national
commissioner at the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC), has
been appointed to head the collation centre of the elections.
Zakari was appointed to head the
committee on collation centre, one of the two committees for the election which
the commission inaugurated on Thursday in Abuja.
Speaking during the inauguration,
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said the committee shall be responsible for the
national collation centre – the International Conference Centre – from where
results of the presidential election will be announced.
“Today, the commission is taking
another step in our determination to ensure seamless preparations for the 2019
General Election. As we move closer to the elections, the Commission has
decided to set up two (2) ad hoc Committees to drive important components of the
electoral process,” he said.
“The first Committee is
responsible for electoral logistics. The Commission is aware that the conduct
of a General Election is the biggest and most complex logistics operation a
nation can undertake. Sensitive and non-sensitive materials procured by the
Commission must be delivered to almost 200,000 locations nationwide, ranging
from the polling units to the various Ward, Local Government, State and the
National collation centres for the 1,558 constituencies into which elections
will be conducted.
“The second ad hoc committee,
which is entirely internal to the Commission, shall be responsible for the
national collation centre from where results of the Presidential election will
be announced. As was the case in 2015, the Commission will use the
lnternational Conference Centre (lCC) in Abuja. Already, the management of the
ICC has approved the Commission’s request to once again use the venue in 2019.
It will serve as the secretariat for collation of results and venue for briefing
of international observers and the media. It will also be accessible to agents
of the seventy-three (73) political parties fielding candidates in the
presidential election. Facilities such as power, access to the lnternet, live
transmission for national and international media as well as accreditation for
access to the ICC and security of the venue shall be handled by the Committee.”
Ahmed Muazu, a retired military
man, was named head of the other committee.
WHO IS ZAKARI?
The national commissioner was once
appointed acting chairman of INEC.
She had been at the commission’s
department of health and welfare after being redeployed as the head of
electoral operations and logistics.
Her redeployment took place after
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused her of working for President
Muhammadu Buhari and demanded that she be moved.
Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of
the PDP, had said in a statement: “While Prof. Mahmood Yakubu can no longer be
trusted to conduct the 2019 general election, it is public knowledge that Mrs
Amina Zakari, the INEC Director in charge of Operations and ICT, is a direct
blood relation of Mr President and as such, we believe that she cannot be an
impartial arbiter in an election involving her uncle.”
The party had also told the commission
not to “bow to pressure” and return Zakari to her former position.The second
committee, on electoral logistics, is chaired by Ahmed Mu’azu, national
commissioner.
It includes key government
institutions and security agencies whose roles according to the chairman are
defined in the electoral act.
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