No, the chair of Nigeria’s electoral commission, Mahmood Yakubu, hasn’t stepped down
IN SHORT: With the results of Nigeria’s presidential election on 25 February 2023 still being digested, social media posts claim that the head of the electoral body has resigned. He is still in office, a media aide told us.
As the conduct and outcome of Nigeria’s 25 February 2023 presidential election continues to be debated, including in the courts, the head of the electoral commission is among those under scrutiny.
The candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) party, Bola Tinubu, was declared president-elect.
Mahmood Yakubu is the chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), which is responsible for the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
Some of the complaints centre on the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), with results not being sent to Inec's Result Viewing Portal (Irev) in real time, as had been promised by the commission.
In the aftermath, the elections for governors and state assemblies were also postponed from 11 to 18 March.
It is in this context that a video has surfaced online with the claim that Yakubu has stepped down after being “caught red handed”.
On one side of the screen is a video of a presenter on a popular TV station in Nigeria interviewing an Inec official about the readiness of the Irev portal for the state elections. On the other side is a video of the owner of the Facebook page.
But the video’s caption reads: “Yakubu Inec Finally Step Down After Been Caught Red Handed”.
But is this true?
‘No reason’ to step down
Inec has previously rejected calls for Yakubu to step down.
Photos from the chairperson’s meeting with an election security committee, at the commission's headquarters in Abuja, were shared on its verified Twitter handle on 14 March.
Furthermore Rotimi Oyekanmi, who is Yakubu’s chief press secretary, told Africa Check: “The Inec chairman has not stepped down. There is no reason for him to do so.”
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