The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted a report that alleged its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, attempted to manipulate the governorship election results in Abia State. The story, published by the portal Strenuous Blog, quoted Abia Returning Officer Nnenna Oti as saying she was being forced to act improperly.
According to the portal, Oti—who is also the Vice‑Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri and a pastor with the RCCG—declared: “I am Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo. I am the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri. The people’s mandate shall stand. I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by these principles. The pastor in me and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!” She then claimed that INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu personally called her and gave directives on how the Abia governorship election results should be collated, but she insisted she would not allow the voters’ will to be subverted. Oti reportedly asked the Administrative Secretary to read a message she said came from INEC headquarters in Abuja.
In response, INEC’s Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, issued a statement on Tuesday clarifying that the only communication sent to the state Returning Officer was the commission’s directive to suspend further collation of results. Oyekanmi explained that Chairman Yakubu never called Oti with any directive; instead, Oti requested the official communication regarding the suspension. The Chairman then ordered that, pending delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.
Oyekanmi added that the Returning Officer instructed the Administrative Secretary to read the letter aloud in the presence of party agents, observers, media, and security personnel at the collation centre. He emphasized that the alleged “phantom criteria” were a misinterpretation of this procedure. The content of the letter mirrors INEC’s press release dated 20 March 2023, which has been posted on the commission’s social media platforms and is already public.
The INEC therefore urges the public to disregard the story as fake news.
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