National chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Saturday admitted that candidate of the All Progressives Congress, for Niger East Senatorial District, Senator Mohammed Musa, was a registered contractor with the commission.
The INEC chairman made the disclosureat a stakeholders’ meeting held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)presidential candidate, AlhajiAtikuAbubakar, had in a statement hinted thenation that the Managing Director of Activate Technologies Limited, MohammedSani Musa, whose company supplied the machines used in printing the PermanentVoter Cards (PVCs), was the candidate of the APC for Niger EastSenatorial district in the aborted Saturday’s election.
Atiku, in the statement, furtherargued that “given that Mr. Musa’s previous company, Act Technologies, had acontract to supply and install PVC card printers in the INEC Headquarters, itdoes beg the question why Mr Musa’s new company, Activate Technologies, wasgiven a subsequent contract to print PVC cards itself?”
“Other investigations have revealedthat an employee and Director of Activate Technologies and an APC member, Mr.Mohammed Keffi, was filmed at Abuja Airport Domestic Departure Lounge onDecember 29 opening an official INEC envelope and then handling multiple ballotforms which he was checking off against his mobile phone.
INEC obtaining ad-hoc staff list fromAPC ― PDP
Atiku further noted that “while SaniMusa 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 INECmaterials to partake in an election in which the key materials to be used forthe poll were supplied by him.”
Asked by a former Aviation Minister,OsitaChidoka, who stood in for PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus forclarification, the INEC Chairman admitted that he was aware that the saidcontractor with the commission was a senatorial candidate of the APC.
But he, however, assured Nigeriansthat it would not affect the credibility of the electoral process.
He said: “Yes, I am aware. Thatcompany has been working with the commission since 2011. I assure you thatwe have a strict system. No electoral officer will be compromised. Theintegrity of the process is protected.”
Culled from TRIBUNE
