The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has issued a statement in response to the circulating rumor that it had appointed a partisan politician to lead its ICT department in Lagos ahead of the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday.
Chief Olabode George, a former PDP deputy national chairman, had on Monday demanded that INEC boss, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu dismiss Mr. Femi Odubiyi, the Commission’s director of ICT, on the grounds that he is partisan.
The elder statesman said that INEC must explain to Nigerians how Odubiyi, a former commissioner for Science and Technology in Lagos State, became the Head of its ICT in the state.
But the Commission, in a statement signed by Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, said Bode George’s claim was far from the truth.
“To set the record straight, the name ‘Femi Odubiyi’ does not even exist within our ICT Department at the INEC headquarters in Abuja or any State office of the Commission,” the Commission said.
Okoye explained that INEC’s ICT staff were career officers and had never held any political appointment in any State. He called on the general public to disregard the report.
The Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections were slated earlier to hold on March 11th but were postponed by a week to March 18th as a result of the reconfiguration of BVAS according to INEC.
