A lawyer, Mr Festus Keyamo, has criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for asking Mrs Amina Zakari to recuse herself from her appointment as the chairperson of the Collation Centre Committee for the general elections.
Reacting to the controversy trailing the appointment of the national commissioner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he condemned the allegations of impartiality by the opposition party.
“We are stakeholders too, PDP has no right to impose on the nation what its own sense of fairness is,” said the spokesman for the Buhari Presidential Campaign Council during his appearance on Sunday Politics.
Keyamo also faulted the insinuations that the reactions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were attempts to defend the electoral umpire.
He insisted that the ruling party was in support of credible elections and the Federal Government would ensure a free and fair process as promised by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We are not here, and let us make it very clear, to defend the position of INEC because INEC is there to also defend themselves,” the APC member explained.
“We did not make the appointment, we did not put her in the position she is now. We are only here to make the point that PDP has no right to dictate to the nation how we should run our elections and run our democracy.”
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Keyamo further described the controversy over Zakari’s appointment as “a storm in a teacup”, noting that it was unnecessary.
He, however, accused the PDP of repeating lies “in one million times” in order to force such on Nigerians ahead of the polls.
The lawyer questioned why the opposition party was insisting that President Buhari and Mrs Zakari were related by blood, even after the Presidency had explained the relationship between them.
He said, “This is another lie they (PDP) are repeating over and over for it to stick at all cost that she is a relative. The people involved have said they are not relatives.”
“They have explained the relationship that does not fall within any of the definition of relatives,” Keyamo added.
“We all know who nieces are and we expect that if they are saying that she’s a niece to the President, we expect them to be graphic in their details, explain exactly how she is related and what the definition of a niece is, and that is not correct.”
