Former Minister of Transportation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday revealed that a member of the camp of the President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu, nominated the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, for his reappointment for a second term.
After voting in his hometown, Ubima Ward 8 Unit 14, Amaechi expressed dissatisfaction with the polling, decrying what he called a total failure of governance in Nigeria.
He stated that his party did not contest against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state but against the INEC and the police.
According to him, Yakubu also worked with the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, when the Rivers governor was the Minister of State for Education with the INEC boss as the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
“There is a total failure of governance in the country – complete failure. Police are helping PDP to arrest APC members and SDP members.
“Gongs are being beaten about in the whole communities asking people who will not vote PDP not to come or they would be beaten. People are being beaten, the governor (Wike) has declared people wanted, and nobody has spoken.
“The governor has no right to declare anybody wanted. The IG (Inspector General of Police) is doing nothing, and nobody is doing anything – complete failure. There is voter apathy in Rivers. Nobody wants to come out because people are scared.
“INEC is a complete failure. There are those of us who opposed the reappointment of Yakubu Mahmood. The person who nominated him is a member of Tinubu’s camp. So what are you expecting?
“Here in Rivers State, Mahmood worked under Wike as Executive Secretary of TETFund; so what you are having in Rivers is that APC and other parties are contesting, not against PDP, but against INEC, against police.”
Speaking earlier on ARISE NEWS Channel, Amaechi had narrated how Wike instigated the arrest of many members of the opposition political parties on election day, and declared many others wanted, wondering where he derived the powers to declare people wanted.
He noted that the actions of the Rivers State governor was because of the total failure of governance in the country.
However, Governor Wike, who was accredited at his Obio Akpor Ward 9 Unit 7 and voted at 11:16 am, said, “I can say they (INEC) have done very well, unlike what we had on 25 February. They have improved more than what we had in February.”