Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has blasted the present chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu. He recently alleged that the All Progressives Congress would not have been registered or won the 2015 general elections if Yakubu had been in charge back then.
Speaking on Arise TV, Rotimi hailed former INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for guaranteeing a transparent electoral process that led to the APC’s registration and eventual victory in 2015.
According to him, the ground rules were very clear when Attahiru Jega was INEC chairman, and the former chairman did more than enough to welcome the formation of the party after APC complied with every registration requirement.
He noted that if Mahmood Yakubu was running the show at the time, he doubts registration would have happened even after complying with every registration rule.
“The current chairman of INEC, if he was the chairman of INEC in 2015, we would not have won. That’s an important point. May God bless (Attahiru) Jega. Because the ground rules were clear. The current chairman of INEC can only be compared to Iwu.
When we were to register APC, Jega opened the door and we complied with the registration requirements. He got APC registered. The current man, if you comply with all these, he would not register you,” he said.
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Rotimi further stated that the current INEC is showing signs of bias, unlike back in the day when the Independent National Electoral Commission was run with a lot of transparency.
He concluded by saying that there is a state capture presently using the electoral institution as a machine.
“Already, INEC is biased. So, the only thing I can tell you now is that, looking at the way Nigeria has run the election, even the Option A4 led us forward. At least a lot of transparency. You were sure of what was going on. Then we came back to meet people like Iwu and others and the current one and things got worse.
So, you don’t know whether to say we are progressing or we are regressing. There’s a state capture using the electoral institution as a machine,” he added.
