The Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has agreed to allow its members work with
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2019 general
election.
The ASUU
president, Biodun Ogunyemi, made this known while briefing journalists after a
meeting with INEC.
He said ASUU
will not stop its members from participating in the election as temporary staff
”as that is part of their community service.”
“We placed
on record that our relationship with INEC dated back to 2010 when Attahiru Jega
was chairman. Even though we are not in the position now to do everything we
were doing that time, we have assured them that we will not stand on the way of
our members participating in the election as ad-hoc staff,” he said.
He said
despite the ongoing strike by the union, it would not stop any of its staff
from taking part in the electoral process.
He assured
that ASUU will continue to work with INEC to further deepen the content and the
process of elections in Nigeria.
The INEC
chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, expressed delight at the position of the lecturers.
“We had a
very successful meeting with the union, we are very happy with the assurance
that we received from the union,” he said. “I am happy to say that as a result
of this meeting, Nigerians should rest assured that 2019 general election is
fully on course.”
He said the
commission would secure collation and returning officers from the pool of
university officials it has access to.
Amina Zakari
When asked
to clarify allegations that one of its commissioners, Amina Zakari, who now
heads the collation committee is related to the president, the chairman simply
said: “she is not related to the president. She is from Jigawa State. The
president is from Katsina State”.
The
presidency earlier on Friday had clarified that Mrs Zakari was not related by
blood to Mr 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,” Garba Shehu, Mr Buhari’s spokesperson said.
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