As 2019 politics gets closer, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman, Mahmud Yakubu, has said that he cannot be intimidated by the Presidency, nor afraid of death, at this stage of his life.
The INEC boss, who stated this on Friday, December 16, at the opening of a two-day workshop organised by the Commission for some Journalists, in Abuja, revealed that his lifetime ambition was to be a University Lecturer, and that having achieved that by divine providence, whatever happens to him now, is more like a bonus.
Responding to a question as to whether he was under any pressure from the President, he said; “It is too late to be intimidated by anybody. For what purpose? Directly, or indirectly, I have never been approached by anybody to do anything, other than what obtains in the law.
“The best marker is the elections we have concluded. Which party won what? There is no pressure on me, or any of the (National) Commissioners”, he stated.
He also said INEC will conclude two outstanding State and Federal Assembly rerun elections in Rivers Stat,e next year.
INEC had last weekend, moved to conclude all the 22 rerun elections in the State, but was forced to cancel the exercise in two constituencies in Etche.
Yakubu said, “Elections were massively disrupted in a substantial part of Etche Local Government Area, which affected two constituencies; the Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency, and the Etche II State Constituency, for which the Commission will decide on a new date early in the New Year.
“We recorded 70 incidents of obstruction in Rivers, election duty personnel were harassed, abducted, and physically assaulted”.
Condemning the killing of a Police Officer, and other incidences of violence, the INEC boss expressed confidence in the ability of security agencies to investigate all violations of the nation’s laws, “before, during, and after the last rerun elections in Rivers State, including the alleged unsavoury roles played by actors in uniform”.
He said, INEC will work with the security agencies, to uncover and punish those who disrupted the distribution of election materials in Okrika, and Gokana, as well as other incidences of violence.
Yakubu, who applauded the performance of some INEC staff who stood their ground in the face of violent threats from assailants, said the Commission is also investigating some of its staff in Ahoada East and West, as well as in Etche and Ikwerre, to determine their culpability, or otherwise in the hitches experienced in those areas.
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