Atedo Peterside says INEC under Yakubu was disgrace to Nigeria
Even a blind man can see that what INEC did was wrong
Founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Foundation, Atedo Peterside,has marked out the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of its immediate past chairman Mahmood Yakubu was a “national disgrace”.
Speaking during an interview on ‘Politics Today’, a Channels Television programme, while reacting to the change in INEC’s leadership, which saw President Bola Tinubu appointing Joash Amupitan as INEC chairman, succeeding Yakubu, whose two-term tenure ended in October, with Amupitan being sworn in as INEC chairman on October 23, Peterside said, “the INEC that was led by Mahmood Yakubu was a national disgrace.”
“You just have to go on their IReV. If you have time, I will take you there myself and show you result sheets they upload—mutilated, sometimes with figures changed, and in some cases, they even forget to change the words,” he added.
He lambasted the judicial arm of government tor failing to uphold integrity in electoral matters and backed calls for reforming the Electoral Act to transfer the burden of proof from petitioners to INEC.
“I heard former governor Dickson saying in the senate that we have to amend the Electoral Act in some important way,” said Peterside.
“See, this is where our judiciary has not lived up to the required standards. I agree with Senator Dickson that the burden of proof should shift to INEC.
“You can’t allow a situation where INEC can do anything, bring out rubbish results — mutilated and everything — and then argue that it’s for the victim to prove that what they’ve done is wrong, when even a blind man can see that what they’ve done is wrong.”
