Professor Mahmood Yakubu proceeded on terminal leave on Tuesday after a 10-year term as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), handing over to the most senior National Commissioner, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, as the acting Chairman.

Yakubu announced this during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners at the INEC headquarters in Abuja, where he signed his exit note.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the outgoing INEC Chairman appreciated the country for the privilege given to him to serve and solicited support for Agbamuche-Mbu until the appointment of a substantive Chairman for the Commission.

Yakubu was appointed INEC Chairman by former President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2015. He was re-appointed in October 2020 for a second five-year term.

In late September, there was a report claiming that President Bola Tinubu had directed Yakubu to proceed on leave ahead of the expiration of his tenure. The report further claimed that the move was a response to what “insider sources” described as Mahmood’s “last-minute betrayal” of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government that appointed him.

So far, there have been questions about who would succeed Yakubu at INEC and one name has consistently come up: Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN).