Politics

 By Anthony Isibor

IKENGA Ugochinyere, spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Party, CUPP, has said that the groups are ready to resist any attempt by the ruling All Progress Congress, APC, to remove Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from office either forcefully or by any guise.

Ugochinyere told a news conference on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 that there had been renewed plots by the APC to remove Prof. Yakubu from office for daring to publish the entire voters register, which has made it possible for citizens to make observations and objections on the register, particularly in states controlled by the ruling APC.

He said that they insisted that the INEC boss went beyond its bound and that he was working for the opposition.

“With these said, we shall further inform Nigerians that there are still life threats to the 2023 general elections despite President Buhari’s verbal commitment that there was no plan to sack the INEC Chairman, that plot is still unfortunately alive and kicking even harder now even within his party.

“There is still a plot to sack the INEC Chairman, frustrate the use of the B-Vas, and the cleaning up of the voters register.

“Countrymen, our intelligence is that following the publication of the voters register on its website, (note, it is the entire register from 2011 till date), the initiators of the first compromise whom many thought have seized action in their plot to remove the INEC chairman set out again on the same ill-fated mission, this time they claim that the INEC chairman is working hard to see that the ruling party is voted out of office next year.

 “It is for this purpose that the Nigerian opposition and indeed all Nigerian citizens of goodwill have resolved that we shall resist and reject any form of arrest of the INEC chairman when he returns to the country.

“We shall also vehemently resist and reject any form of resignation from the office of the INEC chairman, either forced or otherwise or any other form or method of removal from office, as the compromisers now speak more boldly and assuredly than before.

“We therefore call on any federal court judge before whom any form of application seeking the removal of the INEC chairman from office is pending to remit such files back to the chief judge of the federal high court and not grant such order,” he said.

Ugochinyere, also said that the CUPP has unanimously issued a vote of confidence on Prof. Yakubu for his courage, commitment and determination to see that only free and fair elections are conducted in 2023 and that votes will count.

“It is based on the above that the removing of the 2.7 million unqualified registrants, conducting an entire inquire into the compromise of our voters register to identify the staff involved, and publishing the entire register on its website, a move that gave Nigerians the ultimate power to be involved in the quest for transparency and cleaning up of the register by allowing them to view and make input, that the Nigeria opposition family, have unanimously pass a vote of confidence on Prof. Mamood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, and the national commission for this feat.

“They have shown so far, courage, wisdom, commitment, faith and capacity to ensure that the 2023 general election is transparent, credible, free, fair, and acceptable.

“The INEC chairman has also by the publication proved beyond reasonable doubt that INEC at the highest level is not complicit in the compromise of the register, and that he has nothing to hide.

“The fact that INEC has opened the largest database of citizens in the country for scrutiny by Nigerians, who are the actual owners of the data is most commendable. No one can do it better than the citizen themselves.” he said.

He also noted that by providing access to the data, INEC has shown willing to work with Nigerians, and urged Nigerians to work with them rather than picking too much faults.

“Therefore, we call on Nigerians to go to the INEC website, check for their names, and make observations concerning any names that are not supposed to be there that is there, faces that look underage, persons known to be dead, and any other type of observation. Kindly make the complaints and observations to INEC.”

KN

Tags: CUPP Ikenga Ugochinyere INEC Mahmood Yakubu