The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has congratulated Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on his re-appointment as Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), urging him to continue with the electoral reforms he initiated.
IPAC National Chairman, Dr Leonard Nzenwa, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, described Yakubu’s re-appointment as a welcome development and a blessing to the Nigerian polity.
Nzenwa said that only a few helmsmen at the commission were able to achieve respectable results as Yakubu did during his first tenure in office.
He said that Yakubu assumed INEC leadership four months after the exit of Prof. Attahiru Jega, who presided over the crucial 2015 general elections that ushered in President Muhammadu Buhari as president.
The IPAC chairman also lauded Yakubu’s digitalisation programme which has transformed the way elections were being conducted in Nigeria in the last four years.
“The smooth conduct of Edo and Ondo State governorship election is a clear example of the positive technology and digitisation trajectory which Yakubus’ first tenure gave to Nigeria.
“We urge him to continue with the strident effort to help in reformation of the electoral process, even as we urge the chairman to put his foot down to ensure that Nigerians votes count in all elections in the country going forward,” Nzenwa said.
He urged all stakeholders to work and support the re-appointed INEC chairman’s effort to make all poll in the country to be inclusive, fair, free and credible.