Nigerias President-elect Bola Tinubu (R) and Chairman of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), Yakubu Mahmood (L), look on during the presentation of the certificate of return to the President-elect by the INEC in Abuja on March 1, 2023. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON / AFP)
Former Vice Chairman, South South, of All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Hilliard Eta, yesterday, berated former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, over his claim that the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, influenced the appointment of the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
Eta, in a chat with The Guardian in Abuja, said there was no iota of truth in the claim by Amaechi, who served two-term governor of Rivers State.
Amaechi had, shortly after casting his votes in the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state, accused INEC of working in cahoots with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to undermine APC candidates in Rivers.
He claimed that members of the Tinubu camp influenced the appointment of the INEC national chairman as part of the plan to compromise the 2023 general elections.
But Eta, who is a long-standing ally of Tinubu, said there was no iota of truth in Amaechi’s claim, adding that Amaechi position was purely based on malice and envy of Tinubu’s achievements.
“I take very strong exception to Amaechi’s sour grapes towards Asiwaju. When Asiwaju won election about three weeks ago, I was foraging the newspapers and other information channels to see if he would congratulate the man who trounced him in the primary of our party.
“I did not see any such indication that Amaechi has done what is decent and democratic by congratulating the presidential candidate of the party that gave life to his dead political career, eight years ago, “ he said.
“Now, if he is alluding to the fact that whatever has happened to his rogue APC structure in Rivers State is as a result of the hand of Asiwaju in INEC. Let him answer this pertinent questions: When in 2015 elections he failed woefully to deliver any substantial electoral value in Rivers State, was it Prof. Yakubu that was in charge of INEC at the time?
He said Rivers was the only state in the South South that did not give 25 per cent to President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We cannot tolerate a man, who has gotten so much from our party and has the audacity to speak ill of our party,” he said.
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