From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the clamour from some quarters for the sack or resignation of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, over the outcome of the presidential election. The ruling party however demanded for a comprehensive audit and review of the entire electoral processes and insisted on the change of electoral officers particularly for the April 15 supplementary governorship election in Kebbi State.
North-West Zonal Chairman and member National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, Salihu Moh Lukman, dropped the hint during a media briefing in Abuja.
Dismissing the call for the sack of INEC chairman, Lukman said: “In fairness to Mahmood, I think that call is very unfair because what is really the allegation? That PDP has lost the election, or the Labour Party has lost the election. I mean, we have never had an election that is almost as balanced as the 2023 elections.
“Buhari lost in Katsina, Asiwaju lost in Lagos, our national chairman lost in Nasarawa. You get the point, and yet look on the ballot, just look at it. It is not your capacity to win states that produced the overall winner, it’s the spread.
“Your ability to win votes across every part. Even if you do not come out to be the winner in each state. So what is it really we are complaining about?
And I think as Nigerians, part of the problem, we must begin to address that as politicians. “So all the calls for Yakubu to resign is because we don’t respect ourselves. We don’t respect the institution. We went into the election believing we must win. We don’t even respect Nigerians.
“I want to call on INEC, to, as a matter of urgency, initiate the process of internal review of how the 2023 elections was managed. And as part of that review, they must address issues of ethical conduct of their own staff, including the Returning Officers (ROs).”