The Presidency yesterday in Abuja, dismissed accusations that Mrs. Amina Zakari is the niece of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying Zakari shared no blood relationship with the president.
Consequently, it accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of launching baseless attacks on the INEC commissioner.
But the PDP insisted that Zakari must quit all her positions in INEC, urging the National Assembly to immediately commence the process of her removal.
Zakari, a Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), came under attacks from the PDP on Thursday following her appointment by INEC as presidential election collation officer.
The PDP who described Zakari as Buhari’s niece, said the appointment of the president’s relation to preside over the collation of votes from presidential election was an apparent ploy to rig the 2019 presidential election in Buhari’s favour.
But in a swift reaction yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who described the allegation as a lie, argued that Zakari was not Buhari’s blood relation but only married to a member of Buhari’s extended family.
According to Shehu, PDP’s accusation is misplaced, pointing out that Zakari was not appointed by Buhari but rather by the former government of PDP.
He said her appointment, like the appointments of her fellow commissioners, was only renewed by this government, insisting that PDP lacked the moral right to question her integrity having done her job well.
The statement read, “In another mendacious press release, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has continued their baseless accusations regarding Hajiya Amina Zakari, a commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accusing her of partiality and casting doubts about her integrity as an electoral commissioner.
“In their desperation, they forget that it was the PDP government that appointed her in the first place and they keep lying, as they have been caught doing on so many issues, by imputing a blood relationship between her and President Muhammadu Buhari.
“President Buhari and Commissioner Amina Zakari don’t share a family relationship. An inter-marriage occurred in their extended families, so the imputation of blood relationship between the President and the electoral commissioner is a simple lie.
“By this statement, the PDP is guilty of scoring an own goal and two, of harassing an innocent citizen on the basis of a lie, pure and simple.”
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