The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited Okechukwu Ibeanu, the National Commissioner in charge of logistics at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for questioning.
His invitation is believed to be related to the events that led to the postponement of the general election by INEC by one week few hours before it was to commence.
Ibeanu has been invited to report to the DSS headquarters in Abuja at 2pm on Tuesday.
Recalls that Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, had blamed the postponement on sabotage and logistical issues.
Although Ibeanu, a professor of political science, is in charge of logistics having taken over from Amina Zakari in October 2018, a different ad hoc committee was set up specifically for the elections.
The ad hoc committee, which has 17 members, is headed by Ahmed Tijjani Mu’azu, a retired air vice marshal.
Curiously, an article reportedly written by Ibeanu in December 2015 resurfaced on the social media on Monday with a comment: “Nigeria has a Biafran agitator as the REC for Logistics, no wonder this unpatriotic individual, Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu who has made his mission to undermine the Nigerian state.”
The article in question was a rejoinder to an opinion written by Ibrahim Jibrin (‘Jibo’), a professor and fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
In his rejoinder, titled ‘Resolving the Igbo Non-Question: Pitfalls of Jibo’s Single Strand Ethnic Narrative’, Ibeanu accused Jibrin of “a single strand ethnic narrative”.
“The Biafra agitation is more than relations between an ethnic elite and ethnic lumpen youths. Those young people are framing a struggle steeped in their material conditions of life – unemployment, poverty, etc.
“The leadership of their States (and nation as well) has failed them, but not because they are Igbo leaders, but because of broader issues of political economy, which you very well understand,” he wrote.
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