BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Hadi Sirika, the minister of state in charge of Aviation has faulted one of the reasons given for the shift of the February 16 presidential and national assembly elections. He said the claim by the Commission that the weather was unfavourable for flight operation was false. According to him, there was no problem with weather on Friday and Saturday to warrant a postponement of the elections. Sirika said on his twitter handle, “INEC should say something else as weather was good for flight operations on the eve of elections, similarly all airports were directed to open 24 hours during the election period!!!”
But in a report by The Punch newspaper, officials of the Commission said what Professor Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman said was that flights were disrupted few days to the election, not on the eve or the election day as stated by the minister. The paper quoted Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzezi, spokesman for the Commission as saying that INEC stands by its stated reasons for the postponement of the elections. Hear Osaze-Uzezi: ‘Did we say weather was bad on Saturday or Friday? No, we said days before the election, and we stand by that.’
INEC has come under intense attack from the political parties and the public for shifting the elections few hours to the exercise. The two major political parties- the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP- have also traded accusations over who influenced the poll shift.