•Yakubu and Amaechi
Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has stated that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would not have taken over Nigeria’s helm of affairs in 2015 if the current chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, had been in charge.
According to the former Rivers State governor, the APC would not have been registered by the nation’s electoral umpire.
While speaking on Arise TV last night, Amaechi praised former INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for ensuring a transparent electoral process that led to the registration of the newly formed APC in 2015.
He said, “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.”
Amaechi further alleged that INEC under Yakubu is already showing signs of bias, “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.”
