Former Minister of Education and founder of FixPolitics Initiative, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has queried the recent redeployment of the ICT Director of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Engineer Chidi Nwafor, describing it as a suspicious move ahead of the 2023 elections.
Ezekwesili said the redeployed director had brought sanctity to recent elections by integrating technology in the process, which ensures live transmission of results. She wondered why the electoral umpire would change a ‘winning team’ if there was no ulterior motive.
INEC had recently announced the redeployment of some of its directors and two Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), as part of reorganisation for the 2023 general election. While the former ICT Director, Nwafor, was redeployed as Administrative Secretary of the commission for Enugu State, INEC’s former Director, Planning and Monitoring Department, Headquarters, Abuja, Engineer Paul Omokore, was redeployed as the Director, ICT.
What Ezekwesili is saying
The former Minister who took to her Twitter page to express her concerns over the redeployment said:
- “My grouse with @inecnigeria is the incomprehensible redeployment of a competent Director of ICT whose team has recorded a string of credible elections in recent times. It makes absolutely no sense to change a “winning team” except of course there is something more to this
- “The incredible difference that competent integration of Technology has brought to our electoral process makes one nervous about the redeployment of @inecnigeria‘s Team that achieved so much. How then can reward for work well done be redeployment in an election year? Intriguing!”
On recent appointments into INEC by President Buhari, Ezekwesili said: “As for those blatant partisan appointments recently made by President @MBuhari into @inecnigeria in breach of its constitutional mandate as an Independent Electoral Body, Citizens must collectively prepare to act as a countervailing force in the places where they are deployed.”
I think that the move to redeploy the ICT Director of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a suspicious one.
I believe that this director brought sanctity to recent elections by integrating technology in the process, which ensured the live transmission of results.
I wonder why the electoral umpire would change a ‘winning team’ if there was no ulterior motive.
The recent appointments to INEC by President Buhari are also blatantly partisan and in breach of the commission’s constitutional mandate as an independent body.
I believe that citizens must collectively prepare to act as a countervailing force in the places where they are deployed.
Am interested