NIGERIA: Segun Showunmi, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, has defended his wife’s redeployment to head the Electoral Operations Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), dismissing suggestions that his political activities influenced the decision.
Showunmi maintained that his involvement in President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign had nothing to do with the posting of his wife, Oluyemi Adeyemi-Showunmi, to INEC’s national headquarters.
He described the redeployment as an internal administrative decision by the electoral commission and urged critics to examine her professional record rather than link her career progression to his political affiliation.
He spoke during an interview on Channels Television, where he became agitated after the presenter questioned whether his wife’s new position was a form of compensation for his political activities.
The controversy followed INEC’s redeployment of Oluyemi, who previously served as the commission’s administrative secretary in Lagos State, to its national headquarters to head Electoral Operations ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Under the reshuffle, Isah Magaji Gummi, who previously headed the Electoral Operations Department, was moved to the Voter Registry Department, paving the way for Oluyemi to take over the position.
Reacting to insinuations that his political involvement had influenced his wife’s elevation, Showunmi insisted that she was a career civil servant who had spent her entire working life with INEC.
According to him, she joined the commission immediately after completing her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Maiduguri and had remained there throughout her career.
“That’s a civil servant you are talking about there. She’s a level 17 officer. Up till this posting, which comes within their own organisation and has nothing to do with anybody, I’m not even sure the President knows,” Showunmi said.
