The presidency has reassured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari has no plans to oust Mahmood Yakubu as INEC chairman over the adoption of the bimodal voter registration system (BVAS) in the general elections of 2023.
Femi Adesina, the presidency special media and publicity adviser, denied that INEC will be prohibited from utilising BVAS in the upcoming general elections.
Adesina noted that Buhari had stressed the need for technology in conducting a good election while speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, November 1.
Buhari will support the use of BVAS in the upcoming general election, according to the presidency.
He said: “Recently, there was one group that said the Chairman of INEC was going to be removed because maybe they didn’t want BVAS.
“How many times has the President spoken about the role of technology in getting him into office?
“Then he said until technology came and there were permanent voter cards and so it was difficult to write results.
“So, how and why can the same person have issues with BVAS? I saw that group on television, alleging that there was a plan to remove the INEC Chairman and the media gave them that opportunity.”
Adesina cautioned journalists against allowing people with sinister motives to disrupt the 2023 general elections by spreading false rumours.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Abubakar, has dismissed concerns that Nigerians will experience food shortages in the coming months due to the ravaging floods across the country.
Abubakar said this while responding to questions from lawmakers on Monday, October 31, at the budget defence session of the ministry before the National Assembly.
The budget defence was jointly organised by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Agriculture.
Some of the lawmakers in their separate submissions had decried the effects of floods in the country, especially on farming.
They also said that projections had been made that Africa might experience food shortage given the stoppage of grain importations occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine war.
But Mohammed said, “The main concern about food scarcity, in the coming months, we will not allow that to happen, I can guarantee you by the Grace of God because we have measures in place.
“One of the measures is dry season farming, which we have in place and the money, we are working with the Ministry of Finance, we have gotten money from financing agencies, one of them is AFDB, and we will intensify dry season farming.”
