Rotimi Amaechi
The immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has lashed out at the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, over the conduct of the 2023 general election.
Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, said one of the loyalists of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, nominated Yakubu as INEC chairman.
The former minister stated that the INEC boss also worked under Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
He decried the conduct of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State, saying the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not contest the elections against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but against INEC and the police in the state.
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Amaechi said this while speaking to journalists after casting his vote at his polling unit in Rivers State on Saturday.
“There are those of us who opposed the reappointment of Mahmood. The person who nominated him for appointment is a member of Tinubu’s camp.
“So what are you expecting? Success? Here in Rivers State, Mahmood worked under Wike as the Executive Secretary of TETFund; so what we are having in Rivers State is that APC, SDP, and others are contesting the election not against PDP; against INEC, against police,” the former governor stated.
Amaechi vied for the APC presidential ticket but lost to Tinubu at the party’s primaries held in June 2022.
The former minister emerged as runner-up in the primaries.
He had since been campaigning for the APC governorship candidate in Rivers State, Tonye Cole.
The Rivers State chapters of the APC, National Rescue Movement (NRM), Accord, Action Alliance (AA), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) had accused INEC of an alleged plot to rig Saturday’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in favour of the PDP in the state.
The parties said some top INEC officials were in connivance with officials of the Rivers State Government and the PDP to rig the polls in the state in favour of the party’s (PDP) candidates.
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