INEC confirms APC candidate is commission’s contractor

Mahmood Yakubu, national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has confirmed that one of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a contractor to the commission.

Addressing stakeholders on the reason behind the postponement of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Abuja on Saturday, the INEC chairman said the contractor’s political inclination will not affect the commission.

The contractor in question is Mohammed Musa (pictured), APC’s candidate for the Niger east senatorial district seat.

“Yes, I am aware. That company has been working with the commission since 2011. I assure you that we have a strict system,” he responded to a question by Osita Chidoka, former aviation minister who represented Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the meeting.

“No electoral officer will be compromised. The integrity of the process is protected.”

In an earlier statement released by the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, had said that Musa’s company, ‘Activate Technologies Limited’, was saddled with supplying the machines used in printing the permanent voter cards (PVCs).

“While Sani Musa has the right to hold any public office in spite of his line of business, it is morally unjustifiable to allow a well-known supplier of sensitive INEC materials to partake in an election in which the key materials to be used for the poll were supplied by him,” Atiku was quoted to have said in the statement.