Joseph Bakare
The presidency has described as baseless rumours that president Muhammadu Buhari is plotting to remove Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu over the abrupt postponement of the general elections.
A politician has alleged that Buhari was planning to give Yakubu the push over last Saturday’s postponement of the elections.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, debunked the reports that Yakubu was to be removed.
Shehu said: “Those reports are utterly baseless and false. There is nothing like that.
“Whoever is saying the President is removing INEC chairman is just displaying his illiteracy. Let him go and read the constitution.
“You need a resolution by two-thirds majority of the Senate for any such action.”
The clarification by the Presidency came against the backdrop of the agitation by National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, and the alarm raised by the amorphous Coalition of United Political Parties( CUPP) that President Muhammadu Buhari was plotting to remove the INEC chairman.”
“Buhari’s administration will not change the rule in the middle of the game. Asking INEC chairman to quit will cause rumpus within INEC management , disrupt all preparations for the poll and create unrest nationwide.
“The opposition has a hidden agenda, which this government will not buy into. We will also not play into their hands.The INEC chairman will remain in charge of the electoral agency.”
Meanwhile, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus said the “shoddy” arrangement for the elections by INEC was “a deliberate agenda” of President Buhari to cling on to power even when it’s obvious to him that Nigerians want him out.
Secondus has therefore called on Yakubu to resign immediately.
The PDP leader warned that the party will not accept anything short of a well organised electoral process devoid of manipulation, harassment and intimidation of voters and the opposition, particularly members of the PDP.
Having failed in all their nefarious options to enable them cling on to power, the APC and the INEC came up with the idea of shifting elections, an action that is dangerous to our democracy and unacceptable, Secondus said.