Oshiohole berates INEC chairman, demands apology to Nigerians

Chidi Samuel|

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday described the action of Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), over the postponement of the elections as an embarrassment and demanded an apology from him to Nigerians.

Oshiomhole, who spoke at the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja, where the commission met with stakeholders to explain the reasons for postponement of the elections, said the commission ought to have done better.

He said, “Let me associate myself with some of the comments. We thank you for inviting us for this session and for all the explanation you have raised.”

“What you have not explained, with due respect, is why did you have to wait till 2 am this morning to realise that you have logistics challenges. Over the weeks, some people raised doubts whether INEC was in position to proceed with the election, you kept reassuring the country that you were ready.

“The cost to mobilise party agents to 176,000 polling units across the country. This entails huge cost and entails huge risk. Just as INEC has huge logistics, every serious presidential candidate also has huge logistics. But unlike INEC that can fall on public treasury, political parties have to look for resources to mobilise their agents to various polling points.

“Nigerians have been subjected to a rude shock, I think we should be honest, I’m shocked, I’m disappointed, I’m disgusted. If we know that it would be postponed, we would have saved a lot. For we the real players, it is a huge shock. I ask you, sir, why didn’t you inform us at least 48 hours earlier when you noticed that you have issues with weather, logistics – you didn’t know about all these until 2 am this morning?”