The Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Hajiya Amina Bala Zakari, has re-affirmed the Commission’s commitment to its role of being an unbiased umpire in the electoral process.
The INEC Acting Chairman made the affirmation during an interview granted Channel TV last week at the Commission’s headquarters. Amina Zakari spoke on a wide range of issues concerning her appointment, the Commission’s preparations for the forthcoming Bayelsa and Kogi elections, election Tribunals, the Electoral Act and election security.
She said: ” INEC is an independent organization as enshrined in the constitution, and all INEC staff are aware of that, we have all signed on to the oath of neutrality, so I think as a Nigerian your main concern should be when you are given a task you should be conscious enough to remove your personal feeling from the job”.
When asked about her response to the controversy surrounding her appointment, she responded thus: “I think we should not detract ourselves from the issues at hand, I have been in the Commission, I am a National Commissioner, I passed through the Senate screening to become a National Commissioner, and by virtue of that I am appointed Acting Chairman in the Commission. So there shouldn’t have been much controversy. But be it as may I have a job to do and I am set out to that job”.
Another issue the INEC Acting Chairman cleared was on the expiration of her tenure as National Commissioner on the 21st of July 2015, while holding the office of the Acting Chairman of the Commission. “My tenure would have expired on July 21st but my letter of appointment as Acting Chairman claimed categorically I should act pending when a new Commission is put in place,” She said.
