The Unified Nigerian Youth Forum (UNYF) has described the call for the sack of chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, as an attempt to manipulate the 2023 general elections if allowed to succeed.
President of the group, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, stated this in Kaduna while addressing a press conference, saying those calling for the sack of the INEC chairman were paid agents seeking to manipulate next year’s election.
“We on behalf of our members pass a vote of confidence on the INEC national chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood and his entire team for being worthy ambassadors of our nation.
“Despite the giant strides recorded by Prof. Mahmood, especially in the area of deploying cutting edge technology such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for credible, fair and transparent elections as well as voter mobilisation and enlightenment, such agents are bent on denting his good image,” he said.
Kazeem said the activities of certain groups purporting to be promoting the interest of the North and Nigeria but sadly working for the enemies of the nation were in public domain, and those people had continued to falsely accuse and demand the resignation and sack of the INEC chairman for carrying out his mandate.
He added: “Those behind this charade are nothing but paid agents and goons of selfish and unpatriotic politicians seeking to manipulate next year’s general elections at all costs. We dispel in strong terms the rumours making rounds that the INEC boss and his management team have morally compromised because of pressure from political parties to deactivate BVAS. For the records, please note that BVAS and all the electoral reforms currently in place have been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC majority in theNational Assembly.
“It is inconceivable to say that the APC or any political party is pressuring INEC. It is again not true that INEC and indeed Prof. Yakubu Mahmood have been pressured by anybody to deactivate or stop the use of the BVAS they introduced in fulfilment of the president’s promise of delivering a transparent election.”
