Amina Zakari ‘will not be involved’ in collation of election results

Amina Zakari, a national commissioner at the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), will not be involved in the
collation of election results, a source at the INEC told TheCable
no Nairalaw on Thursday evening.

The source said this while reacting to the outrage that trailed
the appointment of Zakari as head of a committee ahead of the
elections.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, had inaugurated two committees on
Thursday, explaining that the one chaired by Zakari shall be
responsible for the national collation centre.

In its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had said by
the appointment, INEC had given Zakari the opportunity to rig the
election in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

At a press conference in Abuja, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Yakubu
and the commission had set the for a huge crisis before the
election.

Ologbondiyan said his party was against the appointment of
Zakari whom he described as a relative of President Muhammadu
Buhari.

But a source at INEC said the PDP misconstrued what the
appointment is about.

“She (Zakari) is only in charge of the collation centre,
basically issues around the administration of the venue,” the
source said.

“It is an in-house committee responsible for water, electricity,
briefing rooms, toilets, refreshment etc. She chairs the committee
in her new role as chairperson of health and welfare committee.

“There is the results collation committee/secretariat which is
separate and under the exclusive control of the INEC chairman. The
collation centre committee has no role in processing results
collated from the states and presented to the chairman by
vice-chancellors who serve as collation officers.”