2023: Presidency not against e-transmission of results, has no plans to sack INEC Chairman – Adesina 2

Special Adviser to the President, Media and publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari is not against the introduction of technology towards free, fair and credible election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2023.

Adesina, who disclosed this during 2022 International Day to end impunity for crime against Journalists with the theme “Media, Civil Society and Violence -free Election in Nigeria”, on Tuesday, in Abuja, said that as such, there were no plans by the APC-led government to sack the INEC Chairman as recently speculated.

He noted that the present transformation embarked upon by the the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu was capable of giving Nigeria credible election in 2023.

In a keynote address on the occasion, the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu lamented the threats of violence and crimes journalists often encountered in the course of carrying out their job and the apparent failure of governments to bring the perpetrators of such violence and crimes to justice that the UN passed a resolution at its 68 General Assembly Session in 2013 proclaiming November 2 of every year as International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI).

Yakubu who was represented on the occasion by National INEC Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, noted that the date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French Journalists in Mali on November 2, 2013.

“According to UNESCO, between 2006 and 2020, over 1,200 journalists were killed in the course of doing their work, with at least 8 out 10 of these extra-judicial killings remaining unresolved. More recently, the Committee for Protection of Journalists disclosed that 16 journalists were killed so far this year, while over 290 of them were jailed last year and 65 of them went missing in action globally. Last year, 45 journalists were killed, according to the International Press Institute (IPI), a Geneva based organisation of editors and journalists all over the world,” he added.