INEC appoints Amina Zakari as head of collation centre for elections

January 3, 2019 4:00 pm

Amina Zakari, a national commissioner at the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been appointed to head the collation centre of the elections.

Zakari was appointed to head the committee on collation centre, one of the two committees for the election which the commission inaugurated on Thursday in Abuja.

Speaking during the inauguration, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said the committee shall be responsible for the national collation centre – the International Conference Centre – from where results of the presidential election will be announced.

“Today, the commission is taking another step in our determination to ensure seamless preparations for the 2019 General Election. As we move closer to the elections, the Commission has decided to set up two (2) ad hoc Committees to drive important components of the electoral process,” he said.

“The first Committee is responsible for electoral logistics. The Commission is aware that the conduct of a General Election is the biggest and most complex logistics operation a nation can undertake. Sensitive and non-sensitive materials procured by the Commission must be delivered to almost 200,000 locations nationwide, ranging from the polling units to the various Ward, Local Government, State and the National collation centres for the 1,558 constituencies into which elections will be conducted.

“The second ad hoc committee, which is entirely internal to the Commission, shall be responsible for the national collation centre from where results of the Presidential election will be announced. As was the case in 2015, the Commission will use the lnternational Conference Centre (lCC) in Abuja. Already, the management of the ICC has approved the Commission’s request to once again use the venue in 2019. It will serve as the secretariat for collation of results and venue for briefing of international observers and the media. It will also be accessible to agents of the seventy-three (73) political parties fielding candidates in the presidential election. Facilities such as power, access to the lnternet, live transmission for national and international media as well as accreditation for access to the ICC and security of the venue shall be handled by the Committee.”

Ahmed Muazu, a retired military man, was named head of the other committee.

WHO IS ZAKARI?

The national commissioner was once appointed acting chairman of INEC.

She had been at the commission’s department of health and welfare after being redeployed as the head of electoral operations and logistics.

Her redeployment took place after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused her of working for President Muhammadu Buhari and demanded that she be moved.

Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP, had said in a statement: “While Prof. Mahmood Yakubu can no longer be trusted to conduct the 2019 general election, it is public knowledge that Mrs Amina Zakari, the INEC Director in charge of Operations and ICT, is a direct blood relation of Mr President and as such, we believe that she cannot be an impartial arbiter in an election involving her uncle.”

The party had also told the commission not to “bow to pressure” and return Zakari to her former position.The second committee, on electoral logistics, is chaired by Ahmed Mu’azu, national commissioner.

It includes key government institutions and security agencies whose roles according to the chairman are defined in the electoral act.

Below is a list of those on the committees:

Electoral Logistics