Tussle over Festus Okoye’s replacement as INEC’S National Commissioner

There is immense lobbying over who replaces Festus Okoye as national commissioner from the South East zone at the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Sources say powerful interest blocks are putting pressure on President Bola Tinubu to reappoint Festus Okoye.

The 5-year tenure of Festus Okoye recently elapsed, but feelers say the former INEC commissioner in charge of Voters education is interested in returning to the Commission and has already commenced lobbying.

However, it was gathered that some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are uncomfortable with Okoye returning, citing what they described as his poor handling of INEC’s communication during the last general election which gave room for lots of misinformation on activities of the electoral umpire.

Many election observers complained about the poor voter education during the last general election and many CSOs says Okoye being head of voter education should take the blame.

It was gathered that some CSOs and some within the president’s core who believe in electoral integrity of the Commission favour Professor Chris Ngwu, a professor of Mass Communication from Enugu, to emerge as Okoye’s replacement.

The situation has put President Bola Tinubu in a state of Dilemma.

Although, it was also argued against Okoye that the position should be allowed to rotate to Enugu state where Ngwu hails from.

Okoye who is from Imo state replaced Prof Ibano from Anambra State.