By Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked reports that it withdrew from the appeal process against the recent judgement of the Kano State petition tribunal.
ASHENEWS reports that the tribunal recently sacked the state governor, Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasir Gawuna as winner of the 2023 governorship election.
The INEC and NNPP’s governor Yusuf had filed an appeal.
ASHENEWS reported HERE that INEC had withdrawn from the appeal process against the tribunal ruling.
However, the INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Sam Olumekun, in a statement on Saturday, said that even though its staff wrote the letter to that effect, the INEC headquarters has disowned the move, and reprimanded the officer.
Olumekun acknowledged that the media reports were “based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case”.
According to him, the INEC headquarters has not only disowned the officer’s move, but also reprimanded the legal officer in question.
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded,” INEC spokesperson said.
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to media reports based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case.
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.
“We wish to state categorically that where litigants join INEC in a case, the Commission is under obligation to respond accordingly. We have therefore instructed our lawyers to proceed in line with extant policy of the Commission. The policy has not changed,” the statement reads.
