2023: Northern Group Says INEC Chair Working For South, Demands His Removal

Arewa Citizens’ Watch for Good Governance, ACWGG has called for the resignation of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

In case he refused to resign, he should be sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari, the group said.

According to the group, the INEC boss is working against the interest of the north and working for the interest of the Southern part of Nigeria.

Citing the recently concluded voters registration exercise conducted by the electoral umpire, the group said the northern part of the country was shortchanged during the process, while more people were allowed to register in the south for next year’s general election.

For instance, the group said its request that the voters exercise be extended in some places in the region where there were security issues, was rebuffed.

It also accused INEC of registering foreigners in the Southern part of the country, adding that the exercise was carried out to favour the south.

According to the group’s leader, Mohammed Adamu, who spoke in Kaduna on Saturday, the INEC chairman must also confirm whether he’s being pressured to leave office, as it has been alleged in some quarters.

The group also stated that it would petition the President Muhammadu Buhari,  the National Assembly, the US Embassy, European Union, in it’s quest to ensure that the INEC Chairman is removed from office.

Adamu said: “As a group, we made frantic efforts to get INEC to extend registration in our region following the shutdown of telecommunications networks to enable our armed forces to carry out special operations in most Northwestern and North Central states, which fell on rocky grounds.

“The unfolding event is a pointer to one fact: INEC is deliberately working against Arewa, in their satanic ploy to suppress votes from our region, and swell that of Southern Nigeria through the registration of ghosts and foreigners.”

“That Prof Yakubu and members of his team should humbly resign so as to enable an independent probe into the allegation of insertion of foreigners’ names in our voters’ register.

“Where Prof Mahmood fails to resign, we will be forced to petition President Muhammadu Buhari, the Honourable Minister of Justice, the National Assembly, the US Embassy, the European Union, the British High Commission and other key actors in the electoral process on the danger of retaining the seeming compromised Prof Mahmood Yakubu.

“At the instance where we feel our demands are not being treated with needed gloves, we shall be forced to come out in our numbers and occupy all INEC offices in the region, including the national headquarters.”

The president of the Conference of United Political Party, CUPP, Ugo Chinyere, had last week, alleged of a plot by some powerful interest in the country to remove the INEC Boss from office.