The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has dismissed a viral social media post alleging the removal of “Igbos, Niger Deltans and Christians” from the list of personnel for the March 18 Governorship and States Assembly Elections.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi disclosed this on Thursday while reacting to a post tagged “Reason why this election was postponed by the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu”
Part of the post authored by an anonymous individual had stated; “I just received an inside information this morning from one of the inec team working across the polling units in Lagos state.
He said he received a message from their superior in their Whatsapp group that the INEC chairman just sent a new list of people who will work on the governorship and state assembly elections.
“He found that his name has been removed including other Igbos, Niger Deltans and Christians who worked during the presidential elections in February 25, 2023 especially in Lagos, and they have replaced them with Yoruba names and Hausa muslims because they believe these are the people who stand with their APC mandate. But their evil plans have been exposed early”.
However, Oyekanmi said the reason for postponing the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Election earlier scheduled to hold on 11th March 2023 are in the public domain and well captured in the press statement that the Commission issued yesterday 8th March.
He said; “Recall that on 3rd March, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had given an ex-parte order for some political parties to inspect materials used for the Presidential election, including the forensic inspection of over 176,000 BVAS machines used in the election.
“These BVAS machines are located in our LGA offices across the country. There are 774 LGAs in Nigeria.
“But with the impending Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections, for which the BVAS machines will be needed, the Commission approached the court to reconsider the order because it could disrupt its ability to conduct the outstanding elections.
We also assured the courts and litigants that the data for the presidential election will not be lost as a result of the reconfiguration.
“The Court agreed with us and granted our request.
“However, the Court’s nod came too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded before 11th March. That was why INEC decided to re-schedule the elections to 18th March 2023.
“It is therefore preposterous for anyone to insinuate that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu ordered the rescheduling in order to remove some poll officials’ names from a particular region of the country. This is falsehood which stands logic on its head.
“However, at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners on 4th March, Prof. Yakubu told the RECs that all staff found to be negligent during the Presidential/National Assembly elections held on 25th February, whether regular or ad-hoc officials, including Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved in the forthcoming Governorship and State Houses of Assembly election.
“RECs are expected to implement this directive. The INEC Chairman has nothing to do with any list.
“The public should disregard the false narrative”, Oyekanmi added.
