Ahead of the 2019 General Elections, The Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC), has appointed Amina Zakari, a national commissioner at the commission to head the collation centre of the elections.
Zakari was appointed to head the committee on collation centre, one of the two committees for the election which the commission inaugurated on Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke during the inauguration, said the committee shall be responsible for the national collation centre – the International Conference Centre – from where results of the Presidential election will be announced.
“It will serve as the secretariat for collation of results and venue for briefing of international observers and the media,” Yakubu said.
Before her recent appointment, the national commissioner was once appointed the acting chairman of INEC.
Zakari had been at the commission’s department of health and welfare after being redeployed as the head of electoral operations and logistics.
Her redeployment took place after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party accused her of working for President Muhammadu Buhari and demanded that she be moved.
PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, had said in a statement: “While Prof. Mahmood Yakubu can no longer be trusted to conduct the 2019 general election, it is public knowledge that Mrs Amina Zakari, the INEC Director in charge of Operations and ICT, is a direct blood relation of Mr President and as such, we believe that she cannot be an impartial arbiter in an election involving her uncle.”
The opposition party had also told the commission not to “bow to pressure” and return Zakari to her former position. The second committee, on electoral logistics, is chaired by Ahmed Mu’azu, a national commissioner.
The committee includes key government institutions and security agencies whose roles according to the chairman are defined in the electoral act.
