INEC National Commissioner Amina Zakari
Governor of Ekiti state Ayodele Fayose may have other issues, aside his party’s defeat in the July 14 Ekiti governorship election, to worry about, as a top electoral officer has demanded a public apology from him within 48 hours.
The electoral officer is the National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zakari, who is in charge of Election Operations and Logistics.
Zakari wants Fayose to apologise publicly to her for accusing her of conniving with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress candidate (APC), Kayode Fayemi, to rig Saturday’s governorship election.
The Ekiti governor, a relentless critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, had, on July 2, 2018, accused the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) of reposting Fayemi’s security aides to the state to plan the rigging of the election.
He also alleged that Zakari and three other INEC officials were working with Fayemi to carry out the alleged plot.
And it appears Zakari will not allow the governors’s allegations to go unchallenged.
She has met with her lawyers and they seem poised for a legal showdown with the outgoing Ekiti governor.
In a suit filed by her lawyers, Ubong Akpan Chambers, Zakari said the governor’s “scurrilous falsehood” had negatively impacted on her health, career and family life.”
The suit is titled ”Scurrilous statements against the integrity, person and public service of Mrs Amina Bala Zakari.”
It was addressed to Fayose.
Zakari’s lawyers stated, “You [Fayose] are a Christian and a family man first before being a politician or governor of Ekiti State.
“You cannot possibly think it excusable on any grounds, other than deliberate viciousness, that a governor of a state can legitimately descend to labelling a mother, wife and sister of his fellow beings, a criminal of such astounding magnitude.
“What makes it worse than defamation is the incredible injurious falsehood you inflicted on our client, in her work and public service.”