INEC CLARIFIES THE APPOINTMENT OF AN APC APOLOGIST AS HEAD OF ICT

Before the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday, the Independent National Election Commission, or INEC, has responded to a rumor that it has appointed a partisan politician to lead its ICT section in Lagos.

In response to a rumor that it had appointed a partisan politician to lead its ICT department in Lagos ahead of the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday, the Independent National Election Commission, or INEC, has issued a statement.

Chief Olabode George, a former PDP deputy national chairman, had on Monday demanded that INEC chief Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu dismiss Mr. Femi Odubiyi, the Commission's director of ICT, on the grounds that he is partisan.

The wise man asserted that INEC must explain to Nigerians how Odubiyi, a former commissioner for science and technology in Lagos State, got to be in charge of the state's information and communications technology.

Bode George's assertion, however, was rejected by the Commission in a statement issued under the authority of National Commissioner and Chairperson of the Information and Voter Education Committee Festus Okoye.

"To set the record straight, the name 'Femi Odubiyi' does not even exist within our ICT Department at the INEC headquarters in Abuja or any State office of the Commission," the Commission said.

The ICT workers at INEC, according to Okoye, are career employees who have never held a political post in a State.

The public was urged to ignore the findings, he said.