The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Thursday, unveiled a 12-member Committee on Collation Centre for the presidential elections with one of its National Commissioners, Amina Bala Zakari, as chairman.
According to the INEC chairman, the Committee “shall be responsible for the national collation centre from where the result of the Presidential election will be announced.”
Tribune Online findings revealed that Amina Zakari is the National Commissioner in charge of Electoral Operations and Logistics. Further checks revealed that she was redeployed last October from her former position as Commissioner, Electoral Operations. She was equally in charge of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department.
In July 2015, Amina Zakari was appointed the acting national chairman of INEC by President Muhammadu Buhari, following the expiration of the tenure of Professor Attahiru Jega as chairman.
Before the emergence of Professor Yakubu, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) squealed consistently against her appointment as the party insisted that a niece to the incumbent president would not be impartial in the discharge of her functions.
Addressing the gathering of the Electoral Logistics and Collation Centre committees members before their inauguration, the INEC chairman said the International Conference Centre, (ICC) would be used as the Secretariat for collation of results like the Commission did in 2015.
He also disclosed that his Commission would be meeting with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) to seek the latter understanding on its lingering strike.
He said:” The second ad hoc committee, which is entirely internal to the Commission, shall be responsible for the national collation centre from where the results of the Presidential election will be announced. As was the case in 2015, the Commission will use the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.
“Already, the management of the ICC has approved the Commission’s request to once again use the venue in 2019. It will serve as the secretariat for collation of results and venue for the briefing of international observers and the media.
“It will also be accessible to agents of the seventy-three (73) political parties fielding candidates in the presidential election. Facilities such as power, access to the intemet, live transmission for national and international media as well as accreditation for access to the ICC and security of the venue shall be handled by the Committee.
“I wish to reassure Nigerians that we are on course to deliver credible elections in 2019. Let me also seize this opportunity to confirm that the Commission will meet with the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) tomorrow Friday 4th January 2019 at 4:00 pm.
“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the ongoing strike by the Union but only in relation to our preparations for the General Elections. We are concerned that the bulk of critical election duty staff are drawn from the universities. We are determined to ensure that processes are not affected by the Union’s industrial action. ASUU is a critical partner to the Commission in delivering credible elections. We look forward to the meeting and we are confident of a positive outcome.
“The Commission has similarly contacted another critical partner, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). We are already in partnership with one of its affiliate unions, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), with which we recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the movement of personnel and materials on election day. The Commission plans to meet with the NLC next Week.”
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