Archbishop Martins, MURIC advise on Amina Zakari’s imbroglio

Catholic archbishop of Lagos, Dr. Alfred Martins, has counselled Mrs. Amina Zakari to take the path of honour and excuse herself from the responsibility of overseeing the collation of results in the presidential elections.

Speaking through his Director of Communications, Monsignor Gabriel Osu, the archbishop said: “For some time, there has been a rumour that Mrs. Zakari shares close family ties to Mr. President, which she has since denied. Her family and the presidency have also denied any family relationship.

“However, from the arguments and utterances of the opposition, the issue has just refused to go away. For the sake of preserving the integrity, which she is said to have nurtured over the years in her career, and to convince everyone that there is no hidden intention, we believe it would be most appropriate for her to excuse herself from the position, while she may play any other role within the establishment.”

Also, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in a statement signed by its director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, implored Nigerians, especially the opposition parties, to stop disturbing the woman.

He urged politicians to address issuesm, not personalities at this stage.

“It is petty and pedestrian. The mere fact that Amina Zakari’s appointment into the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pre-dated Buhari’s assumption of office by several years should close this argument. It is a non-issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, INEC has said over 45,000 adhoc staff would be required to conduct the general elections across the 484 wards in Kano State.

Besides, the commission revealed that 511,418 Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) were yet to be collected across the state.

Assistant director, public education, INEC Kano office, Garba Lawan, revealed this yesterday to journalists in his office.

Garba, who stressed that the commission was putting final touches on its preparation for the February 16 presidential and National Assembly elections, revealed that some of the non-sensitive materials had already arrived the Kano office.

He posited that large percentage of the adhoc staff required for the poll, including presiding and assistant presiding officers, would be carefully sourced from the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) and students of federal tertiary institutions in Kano.

Supervising staff, he added, will also be drawn from among academic and non-academic staff of the institutions.