By Lanre Oloyede
Pro-democracy rights activist, Barr. Chukwudi Ezeobika, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remove Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to the legal practitioner, the continued retention of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood as INEC Chairman portends a grave danger to Nigeria’s democratic process.
In a statement issued Tuesday, a copy of which was made available to this newspaper, Barr. Ezeobika stated that Mahmood’s incompetence is the sole reason for the mass exodus of Nigerian youths abroad in what is now popularly described as JAPA Syndrome.
The former Senatorial Candidate of Anambra South in 2018 called on anti-graft agencies to investigate the activities of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood and Commissioners under him in order to redeem the battered, impaired, and corruption-ridden image of the electoral institution.
Barr. Ezeobika, who was the former National Legal Adviser, Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), noted that INEC under Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has remained the main reason why Nigerians, most especially the Nigerian youths, have completely lost hope in the entity called Nigeria and have resorted to leaving the country in droves.
He said: “Prof. Yakubu Mahmood and his electoral body both at the national and State levels have not only destroyed the future of many youths in Nigeria by remaining partisan in the conduct of elections but has consistently, wilfully and deliberately misled the electorates on its programmes and schedule for elections since his appointment as the Chairman of INEC.
“From its bold supervision of parallel party primaries across the States of the Federation to its declaration of false and or unpopular Candidates as winners of elections and party primaries in Nigeria, the recklessness of the electoral umpire under Prof. Yakubu Mahmood can not be overemphasised.
“The misinformation to and false education of Nigerians by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters simultaneously as well as IReV which allows members of the public to create personal accounts and monitor uploaded results, increasing the transparency and integrity of the electoral process, has remained the greatest scam and falsehood in the history of elections in Nigeria.
“The cost of the inadequacies, inept and incompetence of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, in the discharge of his duties as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, can not be overemphasised.
“From personal costs on litigation to Nigerians (Nominees and Candidates alike), which runs into several billions of Naira yearly, due to their participation in the primaries and elections monitored and conducted by INEC, to the huge financial burden on tax payer’s money budgeted yearly by the Nigerian government in prosecuting civil and criminal cases which sterm from the unwholesome activities of the electoral body in the discharge of its constitutional duties, it is now evidently obvious that
the continued retention of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, as the Chairman of INEC in Nigeria, is not only insulting but acutely reprehensible.
“In view of the foregoing, I call on the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede to redeem the corrupt and battered image of the electoral system in Nigeria by promptly investigating billions of taxpayers’ money budgeted and released to INEC under Prof. Yakubu Mahmood for the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
“I call on the Commission to further investigate personal financial activities of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, as well as that of the Commissioners under him since their appointments.”
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