Zakari should resign, Ozekhome insists

Amid speculations that President Muhammadu Buhari may soon confirm Amina Zakari as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, has reiterated a call for her resignation.

Acting Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Mrs. Aminat Zakari

Following her June 30 appointment as acting chairman of the electoral body, Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had claimed that Zakari’s appointment was unknown to the 1999 Constitution. The governor also alleged that she had family ties with the President.

Zakari, who was National Commissioner at INEC, replaced Prof. Attahiru Jega, whose five-year tenure as the INEC chairman ended on June 30.

In an email exchange with our correspondent, Ozekhome echoed the call for Zakari to resign or be dismissed. According to him, her credibility as acting INEC chairman should be called to question by law and based on the allegations brought against her.

“The Constitution only allows for a substantive chairman of INEC, never an acting one. Whether or not Mrs. Zakari is PMB’s (Buhari’s) in-law, the fact that her bona fides for the job, her credibility, impartiality and independence in handling the job have been vigorously questioned are sufficient reasons for her to resign honourably, or get sacked by PMB.

“What helped Jega at the most critical of times was the general public perception that he was not compromised. The doubts already raised about Mrs. Zakari can never make her deliver credible, free, fair and acceptable elections.

“She had better saved the nation another round of unnecessary tension and recriminations. We have already had too much of that, in tons. She will be morally challenged and ethically unstable in effecting credible deliverables,” the legal expert said.

Zakari should resign, Ozekhome insists