Death threat: INEC tackles Buhari

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu has disagreed with the position of President Muhammadu Buhari on what should be done to anybody involved in the snatching of ballot boxes.

Yakubu took a position on Tuesday during a press briefing at the Abuja International Conference Centre when he was asked to respond to President Buhari’s statement that ballot box snatchers would do so at the risk of their life.

The INEC chairman said that violators of electoral law, including ballot box snatchers, would “be punished within the confines of the law.”

Asked to confirm the veracity of stories alleging that senior officers of the Commission had been picked up for interrogations by some arms of the country’s security network, Yakubu said, “No National Commissioner was arrested by security agencies. There is none whose residence was ransacked and the National Commissioner in question is in his office as we speak here.”

He also raised hopes that elections slated for February 23 would be a success noting that, “95 per cent of the Smart Card Readers have been reconfigured” in preparation for the presidential and National Assembly elections rescheduled for this Saturday.