‘Joke Carried Too Far’ — INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu Denies Alleging Threats To His Life

Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied alleging threats to his life amidst protests against the commission’s conduct of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

Although aggrieved political parties and candidates in the just concluded presidential election have openly said they would seek redress in court, reports circulated a few days ago that the INEC chairman claimed that he was getting threats over the outcome of the election.

But Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, has denied the reports.

“At no time did the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu say that his life was at risk. The public should disregard the fake narrative being circulated by mischief makers,” Oyekanmi said in a tweet on Tuesday.

At no time did the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu say that his life was at risk. The public should disregard the fake narrative being circulated by mischief makers. pic.twitter.com/GKd5C1Vaq4

— Rotimi L Oyekanmi (@rot1930) March 6, 2023

Due to INEC’s failure to immediately transmit the results of the election which produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as president-elect, many Nigerians have been accusing the electoral umpire of conniving with the ruling party to rig the election.

Yakubu declared Tinubu as the winner of the election despite complaints of alleged discrepancies in collated figures and INEC’s failure to abide by its own regulation mandating electronic transmission of the results from polling units using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.