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 disclosure at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Saturday’s Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm that the Managing Director of Activate Technologies Limited, Mohammed Sani Musa , whose company supplied the machines used in printing the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Niger East Senatorial district for tomorrow’s poll.
In a press statement issued on Friday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Atiku stated that the revelation is a result of his team’s extensive intelligence gathering network to identify and prevent the ruling party from rigging the election.
The statement said, “It is public knowledge that Sani Musa, popularly known as Sani 313 is a card carrying member of the APC and a close associate of several stalwarts of the party, including President Muhammadu Buhari who apparently pushed his nomination. But shockingly, the APC Senatorial candidate for Zone B of Niger State,Mr. Mohammed Musa, has a contract with INEC to supply key voting materials in an election he is participating in, which is a clear conflict of interest and raises questions of probity and oversight in the issuing of INEC contracts.”
Atiku further noted that “while Sani Musa 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 INEC materials to partake in an election in which the key materials to be used for the poll were supplied by him.”
Asked by a former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, who stood in for PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus for clarification, the INEC Chairman admitted that he was aware that the said contractor with the commission was a senatorial candidate of the APC.
But he, however, assured Nigerians that it would not affect the credibility of the electoral process.
He said: “Yes, I am aware. That company has been working with the commission since 2011. I assure you that we have a strict system. No electoral officer will be compromised. The integrity of the process is protected.”
