The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, October 10, said viral reports about an order made by the federal high court, Osogbo, Osun state, for the arrest of its immediate past chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, is “misleading”.
It would be recalled that reports recently emerged that Justice Adefunmilola Demi-Ajayi of the Osogbo high court ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Prof. Yakubu for disobeying the court’s judgment.
The reports said the court, in its order delivered on Monday, September 29, stated that the former INEC boss failed to implement the court’s order to relist national officers of the Action Alliance (AA) on its website.
The party in a suit numbered FHC/OS/194/2024 sought an order from the court to compel INEC, Professor Yakubu, to re-enlist the names of the Rufai Omoaje-led national executive of the party, which had been removed from INEC’s portal.
However, reacting via a statement signed by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, and obtained by Legit.ng, stated that it filed processes at the federal high court, Osogbo to show that it had complied with its judgment and order of recognising the AA’s executive elected on October 7, 2023, in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
It clarified:
“However, when the judgement creditors filed a counter affidavit to complain that the Commission partially complied by listing the names of only four national executives without the National Chairman, Rufai Omoaje, the Commission responded by attaching the Notice of Appeal filed by the same Omoaje at the Supreme Court, challenging the judgement of the Court of Appeal sacking him as the National Chairman of the party.
“The judgement of the Court of Appeal is superior to that of the federal high court, hence, the Commission cannot list Omoaje’s name as the Chairman of the Action Alliance party when the judgement of the Appeal Court is still subsisting.”
