By Valentine Amanze
The immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), were pressurising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to field the APC candidates in Zamfara State.
The former governor alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s relation, Mrs. Amina Zakari, was already being positioned to replace Mahmood should he refuse to “play ball on Zamfara.”
Through his Media Aide, Lere Olayinka, the former governor said, “It is now getting clearer that APC desperation to have candidates in Zamfara State is one of the main reasons for the postponement.”
He reminded Nigerians of the letter written to INEC by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, ordering the commission to postpone elections in Zamfara State to allow APC to field candidates.
According to him, “Since Prof Mahmood has made it clear that the election coming up next Saturday is not a fresh process and there will be no campaign, bringing in candidates that were not part of the election that should have held today (February 16, 2019) will also negate the position of INEC.
“Putting pressure on the INEC chairman and threatening him with sack just to force the commission to accept APC candidates for Zamfara State is evil and unacceptable.”
The former governor said that rather than blame the INEC chairman, President Buhari should be blamed for deliberately orchestrating the elections postponement.
“INEC does not control the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Aviation agencies as well as security apparatus in Nigeria.
“If there is anyone to be blamed for this dying minutes postponement, it should be the President and if anyone needs to resign, it should be President Buhari.”