Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has requested that President Bola Tinubu appoint a new INEC chairman to replace Mahmoud Yakubu.
In a statement published on Thursday using his official Twitter account, Agbakoba made this call.
The senior attorney claims that the INEC chairman must resign or be removed from office in order to avoid impeding Nigeria’s election reform.
However, Agbakoba applauded the President for removing AbdulRasheed Bawa as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said, “Full congratulations go to President Tinubu for getting rid of Emefiele and Bawa and fuel subsidy and forex corruption. Endemic corruption has suffered a massive blow.
“Next is for the president to dismantle INEC. Everyone will agree that logistically, the 2023 elections are the worst in our history. I do not refer to the merits of the results of the elections. Many results are disputed and are in Tribunals. Both petitioners and respondents suffered at the hands of an incompetent INEC.
“As we await rulings from the courts massive reforms of the electoral framework ought to begin but this means that the INEC Chairman will have to leave office by resignation or removal, otherwise the reform task will be impeded.
“I add very quickly that the suggested reforms have nothing to do with the merits of election results at all. Both winners and losers of the elections were victims of the failure of INEC. Confidence in Nigeria’s democracy will be enhanced by a deep cleansing of INEC.”
Remember that Yakubu was chosen by former President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed Attahiru Jega, who oversaw the 2015 general elections, as INEC chairman in November of that year.
But in October 2020, Buhari reappointed Yakubu as the head of the electoral commission.
