Amina Zakari: PDP fumes as president’s niece heads strategic position at INEC

The emergence of a Commissioner of the independent Electoral Commission, Mrs. Amina Zakari, as the chairman of the ad hoc committee on National Coalition Centre has stirred up dusts in the political arena and beyond.
INEC, on Thursday, inaugurated ad hoc committees on the Electoral Logistics and the National Collation Centre.
While the ad hoc committee on the Electoral Logistics is chaired by an INEC National Commissioner, Air Vice Marshal Tijjani Mu’azu (retd.), another INEC National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, has been named the chairman of the ad hoc committee on National Collation Centre.
Zakari’s case has, however, generated controversy as the Peoples Democratic Party and other opposition parties as well as critics are expressing fears of possible partiality as she is said to be niece to President Mohammadu Buhari.
This is not the first time that such feeling would be expressed.
In the early days of his administration, , Buhari had made Zakari acting head of the commission, a decision that raised eyebrows then.
Zakari will work with Prof. Anthonia T. Okoosi-Simbine (National Commissioner); Festus Okoye (National Commissioner/Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee); Chief Technical Adviser to INEC Chairman, Prof. Bolade Eyinla; and Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in the collation committee.
But according to the PDP Zakari’s appointment as the head of the committee is a wrong as “she is President Muhammadu Buhari’s blood relation.”
Its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, said such an appointment would assist Buhari, the APC and INEC to rig the presidential election.
He said, “Today, we have been informed that Yakubu, apparently in furtherance of the plots to rig the presidential election, has appointed Mrs Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the chairperson of INEC Advisory Committee and Presidential Election Collation Centre Committee.
“The PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation vehemently and unequivocally rejects, in its entirety, the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s blood relation, as the head of the collation of results, in the same election in which his uncle, President Buhari, as a candidate, has displayed a huge desperation to win.
“The appointment of Zakari, who had been openly accused in various quarters as being the link person between INEC and the Buhari Presidency in their schemes to rig the election for President Buhari, constitutes a direct violence against the presidential election and the PDP will not, in any way, whatsoever, accept it.”
Also, the Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, described Zakari’s appointment as being repugnant and provocative, saying INEC had bowed to Buhari’s wish.
But INEC has reassured all that nothing negative is intended.
According to the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Zakari’s appointment as chairman of the ad hoc Committee on Collation Centre should not be interpreted as a plan to rig the elections.
He said, “Mrs Zakari played a similar role in the 2015 general elections and I have yet to hear anybody say that the elections were rigged.
“As the National Commissioner in charge of Electoral Operations (not ICT as alleged) before she was redeployed to health services, Mrs Zakari played a major role in the planning and conduct of more than 180 re-run, bye-polls and governorship elections that produced clear winners.
“In fact, the Anambra State governorship election is a good example where neither of the two most influential political parties won.
“Rather than vilify her, Mrs Zakari deserves commendation for the outstanding roles she has played in the country’s electoral system since her appointment as national commissioner.”