The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has been requested to resign or be fired by the Arewa Citizens' Watch for Good Governance.
Mohammed Adamu, the group's head, claimed yesterday in Kaduna during a news conference that the INEC chairman and his staff were purposefully working against the interests of the north in order to suppress their votes.
Adamu issued a warning that if the INEC chairman does not step down, his group will petition President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly, the US Embassy, and the European Union (EU).
The group asserts that Yakubu and his group are morally compromised and unable to fulfil their obligation to hold free, credible, and fair elections in 2023.
The group also called for the arrest and prosecution of the INEC chairman over his silence on the allegation by political parties that he was being pressured by some forces to deactivate the BVAS machine to compromise the 2023 polls.
Adamu said: “As a group, we made frantic efforts to get INEC to extend registration in our region following the shutdown of telecommunications networks to enable our armed forces to carry out special operations in most Northwestern and North Central states, which fell on rocky grounds.
“The unfolding event is a pointer to one fact: INEC is deliberately working against Arewa in their satanic ploy to suppress votes from our region, and swell that of Southern Nigeria through the registration of ghosts and foreigners.”
The group called on “relevant government agencies must arrest and prosecute Yakubu for trying to use his office to effect leadership change in our country in a satanic manner.
“That Yakubu and members of his team should humbly resign so as to enable an independent probe into the allegation of insertion of foreigners’ names in our voters’ register.
“Where he fails to resign, we will be forced to petition President Buhari, the Honourable Minister of Justice, the National Assembly, the US Embassy, the EU, the British High Commission and other key actors in the electoral process on the danger of retaining the seeming compromised Prof Yakubu.
“At the instance where we feel our demands are not being treated with needed gloves, we shall be forced to come out in our numbers and occupy all INEC offices in the region, including the national headquarters.”
The group, however, passed a “vote of confidence” in President Buhari’s commitment to delivering credible elections in 2023.