The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu never dictated directive to the Returning Officer in Abia state, his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi has said.

Mr. Oyekanmi in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday titled :”Distortion of facts about the Abia State Governorship Election “said it was the the Returning Officer that wanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of result in Abia State.

“The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State”, he stressed.

According to him:”the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain.”

He lamented that:”this is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that”.

Mr Oyekanmi urged members of the public to disregard the story as fake news.
The social media was awash on Tuesday with a post from Strenuous Blog quoting the Returning Officer for Abia state as saying that the INEC Chairman was trying to dictate directive to her on telephone which may affect the people’s mandate in the state.

Below is the full text of Strenuous Blog and Mr. Oyekanmi’ rebuttal :

“The INEC Presiding Officer In Abia State Nnenna Oti had this to say…

“I’m Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo. I am the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, The people’s mandate shall stand.”

“In her words, “I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by the these principles. The pastor in me (she is a Pastor with the RCCG) and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!”

“Then to the shock and surprise of everyone in the hall, she said that the INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, personally called her and gave her directives on guidelines to follow in ensuring that Abia governorship election results were collated based on some criteria but that on her own she has decided that the will of Abia voters would not be subverted under her watch.

“At that point, she asked the Administrative Secretary to read the message she said that came from the INEC headquarters Abuja. There are men and women of integrity in Nigeria. I’ve seen one of them”.

REBUTTAL BY THE CPS TO INEC CHAIRMAN

“The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu never called the Returning Officer to give her a directive. Rather, the Returning Officer wanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of result in Abia State. The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.

“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the content of the letter should be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.

“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.

“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain.

“The public should disregard the story as fake news.

Rotimi Oyekanmi
Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman
Tuesday 21st March 2023.