he Labour Party (LP) has called for the removal and prosecution of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mahmood Yakubu, over the alleged poor conduct of the 25 February presidential elections in Nigeria.
The Director General of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, made the call during a press conference at the party’s campaign headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr Osuntokun, among other demands, also requested a forensic financial investigation be conducted on all expenditures and donations received by the electoral commission before, during, and after the polls.
This, he said, is in addition to the N300 billion appropriated from the national purse as well as other funds and materials received from International donor agencies
“We demand unequivocally, the immediate dismissal from Office and prosecution of Prof Mahmud Yakubu and the commencement of forensic financial investigation into the expenditure of budgeted disbursements and donors’ funds received by INEC,” he said.
The demands come about six months after the controversial 25 February election won by the candidate of All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, who has since been inaugurated.
Mr Tinubu, who polled 8,794,726 votes and was declared winner by Mr Yakubu, defeated the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who got 6,984,520 votes and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
However, Messrs Atiku and Obi are challenging the victory of Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
Tribunal evidences
While reacting to the ongoing court case, Mr Osuntokun emphasised that all evidence supplied by both the PDP and LP had confirmed their earlier suspicion that the election was marred by irregularities.
While demanding that the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, and other top administrative and field officials be sanctioned over their alleged complicity, he also warned against any further intimidation of the European Union and other election observers over their reports on the poll.
“The Labour Party and the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation condemn vehemently, the negative and jaundiced responses on the EU Report and other Election Observers’ reports, by the spokesperson of APC administration and other ill-informed persons, which are totally in discord, with the mood of the nation, at this time, and which also, present an embarrassing contrast, to their selective celebration of the 2019 Election reports, from these same Observer groups,” he said.
“It is now only logical, bolstered by the final Observer Group reports, that the International Community take immediate and appropriate punitive action against Prof Mahmud Yakubu, Barrister Festus Okoye, and other top administrative and field staff of INEC, directly complicit, in the desecration of these elections.”ⓘ
Based on this, Mr Osuntokun said: “We advise those who have deployed hired ‘protesters’ to the offices of the EU, in respect of their election report, to desist from any further wastage of public funds, as the objective of intimidation is without basis, and has failed, from the beginning – because indeed, the irregularities in the election, were so excessively glaring, with bitter personal and reported experiences, by the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.”
He said the EU observer group report is in tandem with the reports of other international and domestic observers, duly accredited by INEC.
He stated further that the report is also in tandem with public opinion and the experience of the majority of Nigerian citizens, who participated in, or observed the 2023 general elections.
“At this juncture, there is no doubt that Nigerians and the International Community expect the judiciary, to critically examine the evidence, the law, and the processes of these flawed elections, in arriving at a legally correct, and overwhelmingly knowledgeable verdict,” Mr Osuntokun said.
Credit: Premium Times