Segun Showunmi, a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, has defended his wife’s redeployment to head the Electoral Operations Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Showunmi said his role in Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign had nothing to do with his wife, Oluyemi Adeyemi-Showunmi, securing the position.
According to him, the posting was purely an internal administrative decision by the commission, urging those questioning it to examine her track record.
He made the remarks on Channels Television, where he became agitated after the presenter asked whether his wife’s new role was compensation for his political activities.
The controversy began after INEC redeployed Oluyemi, who was the commission’s administrative secretary in Lagos State, to its national headquarters to head Electoral Operations ahead of the 2027 elections.
In the reshuffle, Isah Magaji Gummi, who previously headed Electoral Operations, was moved to the Voter Registry Department, while Oluyemi took over his former position.
Reacting to insinuations linking his political activities to his wife’s elevation, Showunmi described her as a career INEC officer who had spent her entire working life with the commission.
He said she joined INEC immediately after completing her National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, programme in Maiduguri and had remained with the commission ever since, adding that her redeployment was an internal arrangement unrelated to him.
“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.
2027: Tinubu's campaigner, Showunmi defends wife's new INEC role