Amina Zakari is here to stay, INEC insists

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it does not plan to remove Amina Zakari as head of the collation centre committee for the general election.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party has kicked against the appointment of Amina Zakari as head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collation center for the elections.

She is to head the committee which Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said shall be responsible for the national collation centre – the International Conference Centre – from where results of the presidential election will be announced.

Reacting to the call for replacement, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, INEC director of voter education and publicity on Friday denied claims that by heading the committee, Zakari will be involved in the collation of results.

He Zakari’s committee is “basically in charge of the physical structure” (the International Conference Centre which is the collation centre).

“The chairman of INEC by virture of the electoral act is the returning officer of the country for the presidential election. It is he who decides the validity of votes and any issues in the election,” he said.

Osaze-Uzzi said Zakari’s committee is primarily “in charge of welfare”.

“She was also very involved in negotiating with the ICC management in 2015 for the use of the facility so her duty is to ensure the facility is ready. She has no role whatsoever with the process of collation,” he said.

Asked if INEC is “considering doing anything in terms of removing her,” he responded: “Removing her as the chairman of the committee to prepare the facility? That’s not an issue. It’s a needless controversy; not an issue at all.”