The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, before the forthcoming governorship and house of assembly elections across the country, top sources in the commission have told PREMIUM TIMES.
\nAn official in the commission told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday afternoon that the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, has been under pressure from the federal government to redeploy Mr Igini from Akwa Ibom.
\nThe official, who did not want his name mentioned in the report, told this newspaper that Mr Yakubu has already succumbed to the pressure.
\n\u201cHe (Mr Yakubu) is working on the (redeployment) plan,\u201d he said. \u201cThe announcement will be out few days to the governorship election.
\n\u201cPeople in the office (INEC headquarters) are surprised, and are worried at the same time why the chairman could give in to such pressure when he knows the consequences it could have on the commission\u2019s image and on the remaining elections,\u201d he said.
\nThe All Progressives Congress (APC) has been campaigning for Mr Igini\u2019s transfer from Akwa Ibom, weeks before the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections.
\nThe Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is the ruling party in Akwa Ibom, won the presidential and all the national assembly seats in the state.
\nThe APC has been accusing Mr Igini of being biased, in favour of the PDP in the state.
\nAPC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has repeatedly demanded Mr Igini\u2019s removal from office and restated his position at an APC meeting attended by President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
\nApart from Mr Igini denying the accusation, the PDP in Akwa Ibom said the APC was frustrated with the commissioner because \u201che refused to help them rig the elections\u201d.
\nMr Igini is generally regarded as a forthright and respectable public officer within and outside INEC.
\nBesides Mr Igini, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the INEC chairman, Mr Yakubu, was also under pressure to redeploy resident electoral commissioners in Rivers, Imo, Benue, and Plateau states.
\nThe APC lost the presidential election in all five states including Akwa Ibom. The ruling party\u2019s dilemma in Imo is worse as its governor, Rochas Okorocha, is supporting a separate party for the governorship election and has been suspended by the APC.
\nAnother source close to the INEC chairman in Abuja lamented the pressure being mounted on him by the federal government.
\n\u201cThe problem is that while he is a good man, he does not have the conviction of a Jega (Attahiru, ex-INEC chairman),\u201d one source said. \u201cHe appears to be caving in.\u201d
\nBut INEC, however, says there is no such plan.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not true. It is just speculation,\u201d Rotimi Oyekanmi, the spokesperson to the INEC chairman told PREMIUM TIMES.
\n\u201cThe INEC chairman has not told me of any pressure, and I don\u2019t see any pressure on his face, except for the normal pressure of planning for the general elections as we all know, but not pressure from anybody to transfer anybody.
\n\u201cThere is no such plan to redeploy any of the RECs before the elections,\u201d Mr Oyekanmi said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, before the forthcoming governorship and house of assembly elections across the country, top sources in the commission have told PREMIUM TIMES. An official in the commission told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday afternoon that the chairman of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}