The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has responded to reports that it has chosen a partisan politician to lead its IT section in Lagos ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Chief Olabode George, a former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, requested on Monday that INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu dismiss the Commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Mr. Femi Odubiyi, claiming that he is partisan.
According to the elder statesman, INEC must explain to Nigerians how Odubiyi, a former commissioner for Science and Technology in Lagos State, became the state’s Chief of ICT.
Nevertheless, in a statement signed by Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairperson Information and Voter Education Committee, the Commission stated that Bode George’s assertion was false.
“To clarify, the name ‘Femi Odubiyi’ does not even exist inside our IT Department at the INEC headquarters in Abuja or any of the Commission’s State offices,” the Commission stated.
Okoye said that INEC’s ICT personnel were career officials who had never held a political position in any state.
He advised the public to dismiss the information.