The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday declared that it is too late for any person to either intimidate or influence him in the running of the commission, saying that the commission was not under the influence of anybody.
Prof Yakubu made the clarification in Abuja while declaring open a capacity development workshop for the commission’s press corps, amidst the speculations that the commission was compromised in the recent elections in Edo, Ondo and Rivers states.
This came just as he lamented the level of the violence that characterized the recent rerun legislative elections in Rivers States, saying there were 70 recorded incidents of deliberate disruption of elections where several INEC staff were brutalised and almost killed during the rerun elections.
“For those who know me, it is too late for me to be intimidated by anybody at this stage. There is nothing I am looking for that God has not given me.
“The only job I prayed for is to be a lecturer but I am a professor. So, anything I do now is a bonus. I don’t think anybody can intimidate me or influence me to do anything at this stage
“So, directly or indirectly, I have not been approached by anybody to do anything in any way and likewise my commissioners to the best of my knowledge.
“There is no influence on INEC. There will never be an influence on INEC under my watchful eyes, since I came to office a year ago, the commission has conducted 163 rerun elections, out of which only one was nullified by the court,” Yakubu said.
Recounting the experience of INEC staff during the Rivers rerun election, he said: “The overwhelming blight on the 10th December 2016 elections is the level of violence and thuggery. There were no less than 70 incidents of deliberate obstruction of the electoral process.
“Election duty personnel were harassed, abducted and physically assaulted. On election eve, thugs disrupted the delivery of election materials to the Registration Area Centres (RACs), a situation that prevented early deployment to the polling units on Election Day. Indeed, in many instances, we had to deploy directly from the local government areas to the Polling Units (PUs), contrary to our plans
“Amidst heavy shooting by political thugs, vehicles transporting materials and personnel to PUs were hijacked. Voter registers, ballot papers, result sheets and Smart Card Readers were brazenly snatched at gun point
“The commission has documented all these instances of violence and wishes to assure Nigerians that we shall carefully scrutinize them and take appropriate action under the Law as well as our guidelines and regulations.
“We welcome the ongoing effort by, especially, the Nigeria Police, as the lead agency in election security, to investigate the circumstances leading to the gruesome murder of DSP Alkali Mohammed and his orderly for which we understand that some arrests have already been made.”
“Our sympathy goes to his family, as well as the families of all those who lost their lives. in the violence that has unfortunately become synonymous with electioneering and elections in Rivers state
“We are confident that the security agencies will investigate all violations of the nation’s laws before, during and after the last re-run elections in Rivers State. including the alleged unsavory roles played by actors in uniform
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