Why Politicians Are After INEC Chairman

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Why Politicians Are After INEC Chairman

‘Why politicians are after INEC chairman’

January 7, 2023

A Professor of Political Science at the Abia State University, Hartz Ofoeze has said that corrupt politicians are doing all things to remove Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in order to rig the 2023 general elections.

While speaking to Vanguard recently, Prof Ofoeze said the rogue political leaders are desperate to oust Yakubu as the electoral body’s helmsman for them to reject the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and go back to the old way of rigging.

The varsity don made this assertion while reacting to different lawsuits filed by politicians against Yakubu to remove him barely seven weeks before the much anticipated 2023 general elections.

Ofoeze said, “As far as I’m concerned, the persecution of the INEC Chairman is deliberately crafted by those who are afraid of his insistence on the use of modern technology to conduct the forthcoming elections.

“In the past when we claimed people had won elections, most of them never won any elections. They just went there, wrote figures and declared themselves winners. But now they are afraid that somebody is bent on conducting a credible poll, and that is why they are after the man.”

He continued that Yakubu’s life is at risk because the moneybag politicians will do everything to get him off their way to subvert elections.

“I’m even afraid for his life because they just want to win at all costs, and would not mind truncating the entire system.

“They believe that once they remove him, they will bring somebody who can be teleguided and manipulated to abandon the use of BVAS just to allow them go back to the old system that can be easily manipulated.

“All these harassments are by those who feel threatened over Yakubu’s insistence to do the right things this time around.”

Ofoeze also spoke on the INEC facilities being attacked in the South East, saying, “As for the attacks on INEC facilities especially in the South East, the aim is to deprive one of the presidential candidates with a strong base in the zone of his votes.

“They were taken unawares, and now they would prefer that the election does not even hold at all. If it were to be in those days when there were no BVAS machines, they would have been happier to hold the election but Nigerians are watching.