News
Yakubu hands over to May Agbamuche as acting INEC chairman
Professor Mahmood Yakubu has transferred responsibilities to May Agbamuche, who is now serving as the Interim National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Agbamuche holds the position of the longest-tenured National Commissioner within the election management organization.
Yakubu made this announcement on Tuesday during an active session with Resident Electoral Commissioners at INEC’s central office in Abuja.
READ ALSO: How INEC boss Mahmood Yakubu escaped arrest
He requested backing from the commissioners and department heads for Agbamuche until a permanent chairman is named.
Professor Mahmood Yakubu is departing his role as INEC head after fulfilling two consecutive five-year terms, totaling 10 years.
President Tinubu is anticipated to select his replacement shortly, pending approval from the Senate.
Yakubu’s initial appointment as INEC chairman came from former President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2015, shortly after Buhari took office.
He finished his initial five-year stint in 2020 and received a renewal from Buhari for another term.
This renewal positioned Yakubu as the inaugural INEC chairman to hold the office for two full terms.
He succeeded Professor Attahiru Jega, during whose leadership INEC managed numerous polls, such as the 2019 and 2023 national elections.
Now that Yakubu has ended his time leading INEC, the public in Nigeria, alongside advocacy groups, eagerly awaits the identity of his successor.
President Tinubu could name a full-time replacement for Yakubu at any moment, and watchdog organizations are pressing for openness in the procedure.
In the previous month, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) called on President Bola Tinubu to “urgently disclose details of the selection and appointment process for the successor to Professor Mahmood Yakubu.”
SERAP pressed the President to “disclose the number and names of candidates for INEC chairman and whether the Council of State has been consulted or would be consulted in making the appointment, as constitutionally required.”
The organization conveyed this in a correspondence from its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, with a version accessed by Channels Television.
In the document from September 27, the organization requested that Tinubu “use the opportunity of the appointment of a new INEC chairman to reconsider your appointment of at least three alleged members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the INEC and to nominate non-members of a political party as replacement.”
“The selection and appointment process for Mr Yakubu’s replacement cannot and should not be ‘a closed shop.’ A transparent and accountable process would would serve legitimate public interests,” the document partially indicated.
On the matter of selecting a new INEC head, Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, stated that the country requires a person of impeccable integrity to lead the electoral institution.
Itodo stressed that Yakubu’s successor ought to lack any partisan ties and possess the bravery to uphold legal standards, regardless of the consequences to influential figures.
The head of Yiaga Africa shared these views while featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
He further observed that INEC’s notable advancements in reforms have been undermined by instances of voting irregularities.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News6 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News6 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News4 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News2 days agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!
-
News4 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls