By Uche Amunike
The Chairman of the the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, has dismissed the rumors making the rounds that he had been sacked from office, saying that he is still in charge of the electoral umpire and that there would be changes to the Electoral Act before the general elections in 2027.
He made this disclosure while interacting with journalists at the Presidential Villa in Abuja at the swearing in ceremony of two new INEC national commissioners by President Bola Tinubu.
According to the INEC chairman, other stakeholders have reviewed the 2023 general elections and have made 142 recommendations. He said 8 out of the 142 recommendations need changes to the constitution or the Electoral Act.
His words: ‘We are here today, basically for the swearing in of two national commissioners. As you are aware, the commission is made up of a chairman and 12 national commissioners drawn on the basis of two commissioners per geopolitical zone. So vacancies existed for the North West and the South East, and the Senate has screened and confirmed the nominees, and Mister President today performed the swearing in.’
‘So, we have almost the full complement of commissioners of the commission. As we are also aware, about two weeks ago or so, we lost one of our commissioners, Major General Modibbo Alkali (rtd), may his soul rest in peace. So now, we have almost the full complement of commissioners.’
Speaking on electoral reforms, he further averred that the commission recently met with the National Assembly’s electoral reform committees in Lagos and that a public hearing will be organized soon with the help of the National Assembly.
Hear him: ‘Thereafter, the National Assembly is going to organise a public hearing, and it’s after the public hearing that a new bill will, at the end of the day, be submitted to the President for assent.’
‘So, we’re working with the National Assembly on electoral reform, but at this point, I’m not going to give you any more details. You will hear from the National Assembly whose responsibility it is, but we reviewed the 2023 general elections on our own.’
‘We engaged with the stakeholders. We came up with 142 recommendations. Out of this, eight require constitutional or Electoral Act amendment, and we discussed this with members of the National Assembly.’
‘So far so good, we are happy with our discussions with them, and we are also happy with the speed with which they want to proceed so that we’ll have some necessary amendments done to the Electoral Act ahead of the 2027 general elections.’
In reaction to the rumours about his sack from office, Yakubu maintained that he was still the INEC Chairman as far as the law is concerned. Hear him: ‘I don’t think we need to waste time so much on this unnecessary speculation. As far as the law is concerned, and as far as I’m aware, I remain the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and under the Constitution, the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation, and under the Electoral Act, the returning officer for the presidential election.’
