#IBEANUMUSTGO is the hashtag that has been trending on Twitter on Monday as Nigerians insist that the chairman of the INEC’s logistics committee, Okechukwu Ibeanu, must resign or be sacked.

The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, had cited logistics challenges as the major issue that led to the eleventh-hour postponement of the presidential and national assembly elections which had been scheduled for February 16.

Therefore, a good number of Nigerians on Twitter want Ibeanu, who is the head of the logistics committee, to go.

The agitation started when a serving senator belonging to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ben Murray-Bruce, shared an image on his handle, calling for the resignation of Amina Zakari, who, according to the image he shared, was the chairman of the INEC logistics committee.

Murray-Bruce did not know, that the image he shared, which was screen-grabbed from INEC’s website, was the members of the logistics committee for the 2015 general election.

INEC, like many other government agencies, had failed to update the website with the list of the current members of the committee.

However, Tolu Ogunlesi, an aide to President Buhari, pointed out to Murray-Bruce that the list he shared was an old one. He uploaded a letter in which the INEC chairman had appointed Ibeanu to head the logistics committee, while Amina Zakari was redeployed to the committee on health and welfare.

INEC has since pulled down the list from its website and updated it with that of the current members of the commission’s various committees.

With the clarification, many who were initially calling for the head of Amina Zakari, turned their ire on Ibeanu calling for him to resign.

Who is Okechuku Ibeanu?

Ibeanu is a Professor of Political Science and former Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He had also worked with the United Nations.

He was appointed an INEC National Commissioner in 2016 and has been working with the commission since.

Some APC social media influencers claim that Ibeanu is a cousin to Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State and current running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, but The ICIR cannot independently verify the claim.

APC supporters are also accusing him of supporting the Biafran secession movement because of an opinion piece he wrote in 2015 which was published by Premium Times.

Before now, Ibeanu was a relatively unpopular INEC official.