INEC boss lied about poor weather— Minister

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has been condemned for blaming the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections on bad weather which affected flight operations.

claiming that the weather was not good for flight operations on the eve of the elections, thereby hindered the commission’s activities.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, on Sunday said INEC should say something else instead of using weather as an excuse.

The minister also stated that all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period and further gave thumbs-down to INEC in his tweets.

Sirika said: “INEC should say something else as weather was good for flight operations on the eve of elections, similarly all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period,” Sirika tweeted on Sunday.

However, the commission insisted that the weather was bad some days before the election day.

It said it did not claim that the weather was bad either on Saturday or Friday.

Spokesman for the electoral body, Mr Oluwole  Osaze-Uzezi, further insisted that the commission was not lying, saying: “Did we say weather was bad on Saturday or Friday? No, we said days before the election and we stand by that.”