Adebayo Shittu, minister of
communications, says Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC), lacks moral justification to call for the
resignation of Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).
Oshiomhole has been very critical
of the INEC chairman over the postponement of the general election.
Citing logistics challenge, INEC
moved the presidential and national assembly from February 16 to February 23
and the governorship and state assembly election from March to March 9.
The APC chairman said this did
not speak well of the commission under the leadership of Yakubu, asking the
chairman to step down.
But addressing journalists at his
his home in Ibadan on Monday, Shittu said the removal of Yakubu due to poll
shift may cause more havoc.
Shittu said if the INEC chairman
leaves office now, the election might need to be further postponed as his
replacement might need more time to prepare.
He accused Oshiomhole of going
after Yakubu when he allegedly conducted the most fraudulent primary in the
history of APC.
“When Oshiomhole supervised that
party primaries elections, which can be described as most horrible and corrupt
in the history of the party, who called for his resignation?” he asked.
“I will not support such call for
resignation of the INEC chairman. To err is human. We have not seen any
political motivation as to what has happened in INEC.
“If Oshiomhole calls for
resignation of the INEC chairman, he should also be preparing to resign as
chairman of APC for conducting primaries marred by irregularities, and even
accused of corruption in its conduct. Did anybody ask him to resign for the
horrible management of primary elections under his watch?
“This is the first election that
Professor Yakubu would be conducting, we need to give him the benefit of doubt
and I will advise that all the political parties should be vigilant.
“If you bring in another
chairman, when does such person begin to learn the process? Or will you on the
basis of that call for another rescheduling of the elections? Certainly, it is
unacceptable for anyone to ask for resignation of INEC chairman.”
The national working committee of
the ruling party had screened the minister out of the governorship race for
after he was exposed for skipping the mandatory National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC).
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