FACT CHECK: is Amina Zakari the head of logistics for INEC?



After one-week postponement of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there have been speculations that Amina Zakari, a national commissioner, is to blame for the logistics delay regarding the electoral process.

Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC Chairman, had said bad weather and delay in logistics was one of the reasons the polls had to be shifted by one week.

Before the elections, various stakeholders, especially the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had accused the commission of plans to rig the election by putting Zakari in charge of its national collation centre.

Zakari is related to President Muhammadu Buhari, albeit a distant relative. However, there had been calls for her sack from the commission, as there were claims that she could be biased as Buhari is seeking reelection on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

After INEC shifted the election, social media was awash with a screenshot depicting Zakari as INEC’s head of logistics, with the insinuation that she probably sabotaged the election to hand an advantage to the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, this is not true.

In 1997, she was appointed as a National Commissioner of INEC.

However, she was eventually redeployed, and contrary to speculations that she should receive major blame for the postponement of the elections, her office actually has nothing to do with logistics.

In October 2018, INEC re-organised the chairmanship of five of its 15 Standing Committees. As a result, Amina Bala Zakari’s position as Chairman of INEC’s Electoral Operations and Logistics Committee was changed to Health and Welfare Committee.

A statement by Mallam Muhammed Haruna, a National Commissioner on the re-organisation, read: “Barrister Festus Okoye, Information and Voter Education Committee; Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, Board of the Electoral Institute; Dr Mohammed Mustafa Lecky, Planning, Monitoring and Strategy Committee; Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari, Health and Welfare Committee, and Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu, Electoral Operations and Logistics Committee.”

In January 2019, she was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Collation Centre. Therefore, Zakari is NOT the head of INEC’s losgistics as being peddled n social media.

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