The Department of State Services
(DSS) has invited Okechukwu Ibeanu, the national commissioner of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in charge of logistics, for
questioning.
This is believed to be related to
the fiasco that led to the postponement of the general election by one week.
Mahmood Yakubu, a professor and
INEC chairman, had blamed the postponement on sabotage and logistical issues.
Also invited by the DSS are Chidi
Nwafor, the director of ICT; Ken Ukeagu, director of procurement; Osaze Uzzi,
director of voter education and
publicity; and Bimbo Oladunjoye, the assistant director of ICT.
Ahmad Mu’azu, the chairman of the
ad hoc committee on logistics, is yet to be invited.
Although Ibeanu, a professor of
political science, is in charge of logistics having taken over from Amina
Zakari in October 2018, a different ad hoc committee was set up specifically
for the elections.
The ad hoc committee, which has
17 members, is headed by Ahmed Tijjani Mu’azu, a retired air vice marshal.
TheCable reports that
Ibeanu has been invited to report to the DSS headquarters in Abuja at 2pm on
Tuesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had
said on Monday that INEC would explain its “incompetence” after the elections
and Ibeanu’s invitation appears to be coming early.
Ibeanu is said to have complained
to his friends that he was being intimidated.
His house in Enugu and his car
have reportedly been broken into with valuables, including laptops and iPads,
taken away.
‘BIAFRAN IN INEC’
On Monday, an article written by
Ibeanu in December 2015 resurfaced on the social media followed with a comment:
“Nigeria has a Biafran agitator as the REC for Logistics, no wonder this
unpatriotic individual, Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu who has made his mission to
undermine the Nigerian state.”
The article in question was a
rejoinder to an opinion written by Ibrahim Jibrin (“Jibo”), a professor and
fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
His rejoinder, titled “Resolving
the Igbo Non-Question: Pitfalls of Jibo’s Single Strand Ethnic Narrative’”,
Ibeanu accused Jibrin of “a single strand ethnic narrative”.
“The Biafra agitation is more
than relations between an ethnic elite and ethnic lumpen youths. Those young
people are framing a struggle steeped in their material conditions of life –
unemployment, poverty, etc. The leadership of their States (and nation as well)
has failed them, but not because they are Igbo leaders, but because of broader
issues of political economy, which you very well understand,” he wrote.
The social media broadcast was
ended with an hashtag #INECIbeanuMustGo.
Ibeanu was dean of social
sciences at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was the director of the
Institute for Development Studies in 2009-2010, and was a visiting professor in
Conflict, Security and Development at King’s College London.
He was special rapporteur of the
United Nations on the adverse effects of toxic wastes on human rights from
2004-2010.
In 2016, he was appointed INEC
national commissioner representing the south-east.
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