Presidency reacts to Amina Zakari’s INEC appointment

The presidency on Friday defended the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari as head of the collation centre for Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

The appointment of Zakari, whose partiality had been questioned by opposition parties in previous elections.

The main opposition party, PDP, and a coalition of some opposition parties, CUPP, have also criticised the Thursday announcement by INEC that Zakari has been so appointed.

INEC, however, defended Zakari’s appointment on Friday, saying she could not influence the elections.

In a statement by Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, on Friday, the presidency said the accusations by the PDP against Zakari were “baseless.”

The full statement reads:

In another mendacious press release, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has continued their baseless accusations regarding Hajiya Amina Zakari, a commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accusing her of partiality and casting doubts about her integrity as an electoral commissioner.

In their desperation, they forget that it was the PDP government that appointed her in the first place and they keep lying, as they have been caught doing on so many issues, by imputing a blood relationship between her and President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari and Commissioner Amina Zakari don’t share a family relationship. An inter-marriage occurred in their extended families, so the imputation of blood relationship between the President and the electoral commissioner is a simple lie.

What is even more curious about all the fuss coming from the PDP is that they, as a ruling party picked Mrs Zakari, judging her by her own merit and made her an electoral commissioner.

She served so well with distinction as can be verified from the records that President Buhari approved the recommendation that she be reappointed, as he did other PDP nominees for second-term of four years.

PDP, therefore, has no moral right to keep harassing this hardworking mother unless they have a hidden agenda.

By this statement, the PDP is guilty of scoring an own goal and two, of harassing an innocent citizen on the basis of a lie, pure and simple.