The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against impugning his character or risk a legal action.
The chairman issued the warning following the call by the PDP for Yakubu’s resignation and the need for the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to commence his criminal prosecution as well as some officials of the commission for compromising the electoral laws through financial inducement.
Recall that the spokesman for the party, Mr. Debo Ologunagba made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
“The party has further reviewed the widely-condemned infractions, brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and criminal manipulation and alteration of election results by the Yakubu-led INEC to subvert the will of Nigerians in the February 25, 2023 presidential and national assembly elections.
“The PDP has also reviewed the latest scheme by INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices, erase and destroy evidence of its manipulation of the presidential election, deny Nigerians and political parties, especially our party and candidate access to relevant information required to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“It is also obvious that the commission under Prof. Yakubu deliberately sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results directly from the polling units to give room for the criminal mutilation, alteration and switching of election results across the nation in favour of the APC as now abundantly exposed in the pictorial and video evidence of compromised results sheets in many parts of the country,” Ologunagba said.
Consequently, he said he called for Yakubu’s immediate resignation for alleged abuse of the confidence of millions of Nigerians, as well as political parties and the international community for a free, fair and credible election.
He also called on the inspector general of police and the director general of DSS to immediately commence investigations into the electoral violations and manipulations by INEC with the view to prosecuting Yakubu and other officials of the commission for electoral offences.
“In the same vein the EFCC should open investigation into allegations that certain top officials of INEC were heavily compromised financially to manipulate the electoral process,” the PDP spokesman added.
Reacting, spokesman for the commission’s chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, advised the party to desist from maligning his principal.
He challenged the PDP to approach the court and present the bagful of evidence it claims to have rather than subjecting the process to a media trial.
“The latest call by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, just like it did previously for the resignation of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is misplaced.
“Interestingly, the PDP did not provide any convincing evidence to back up all the spurious allegations it listed as Prof. Yakubu’s ‘infractions’.
“To be sure, the PDP failed to provide any evidence to substantiate the allegations of Yakubu’s ‘brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, and criminal manipulation and alteration of election results’.
“The PDP also did not give the evidence to prove its claims that Prof. Yakubu ‘sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results from polling units.’
“Besides, the ‘several evidences’ that the PDP claimed ‘abound in the six geo-political zones of the country where winning figures scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC’ were also not laid bare.
“To be sure, the Commission does not rig elections. Rather, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS has, since its introduction, among other innovations, ensured the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring that only properly registered voters are allowed to vote on Election Day.
“It is common knowledge that the PDP has rejected the outcome of the presidential election and has vowed to challenge it in court.
“The path of honour for the party, therefore, is to pursue its case in court, armed with all the evidences at its disposal and wait for the court’s decision.
“But going about canvassing the same issues the party intends to plead in court on the pages of newspapers and calling for the resignation of the INEC Chairman is like putting the cart before the horse.
“More importantly, the PDP is hereby reminded that making libelous allegations against the person of the INEC Chairman is actionable. The party should henceforth desist from the practice,” Oyekanmi said.
