The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has declared the appointment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s niece, Amina Zakari as the Chairperson of Presidential Election Collation Centre as a plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the 2019 election in favour of the nation’s leader.
The appointment came just after INEC denied that it was being pressured by the Presidency and the ruling APC to rig the election.
But CUPP said the denial had now fallen flat on its face and exposed the Electoral Commission as a part and parcel of the rigging machinery of the APC.
CUPP spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere, said: “The desperation of the President must be reined in now before it is too late. We categorically reject this appointment and will consider very drastic measures including pulling out of the peace accord which does not repose a commensurate responsibility of the President to allow INEC conduct a credible, free and fair election.
“Her appointment is a direct invitation to anarchy and must be reversed without delay. We have it on good authority that the INEC Chairman is being blackmailed by the Presidency with investigation reports of the EFCC which discovered massive corruption when the Chairman held sway as Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
“This system of cultivating corruption is the main stay of the Buhari led government. In Osun State, the same system was deployed with a governorship candidate who traded his support for freedom from prosecution. It is clear that the Presidency has successfully put a leash on the neck of the INEC Chairman and he has by this appointment relinquished a most critical element of his job as the Presidential election returning officer to an interested party.
“With a compromised Police Inspector General of Police whose continued illegal stay is a threat to national security and a compromised Chairmanof INEC, CUPP hereby calls on coalition member candidates for Senate and House of Representatives to gird their loins as they are going to be the first line of defence on the Election Day to stop these election riggers.”