Our Chairman, Yakubu not in contempt of court – INEC replies SERAP

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Our Chairman, Yakubu not in contempt of court – INEC replies SERAP

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has refuted accusations by the Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, that its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu flouted a court order regarding the prosecution of electoral offenders.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said this in a statement Wednesday in Abuja.

Olumekun said the commission’s attention was drawn to media reports attributed to SERAP accusing the Commission of failure or neglect to prosecute electoral offenders arising from the 2023 General Election.

It was recalled that SERAP had specifically accused the Commission of failure to engage independent counsels to prosecute unnamed Governors and Deputy Governors for sundry violations of electoral laws.

SERAP also accused the Commission of failing to engage private lawyers to prosecute other electoral offences, including vote buying during the same election. These allegations are untrue in the face of facts already in the public domain, the agency said.

Reacting, INEC said Governors and Deputy Governors have constitutional immunity from prosecution and that SERAP cannot be unaware of this constitutional provisions.

The electoral umpire further stated that in any case, it has no record that any of them has been arrested, or investigated and a prima facie case was established to initiate their prosecution.

“Furthermore, if SERAP had done a basic fact check, it would have known that at the end of the 2023 General Election, the Commission announced that it received 215 case files from the Nigeria Police following the arrest and investigation of alleged violators of the electoral laws across the country.

These include 52 files involving 238 alleged offenders during the Presidential and National Assembly elections and 163 files in respect of 536 suspects for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“It is important to also inform the public that the Commission’s commitment to the prosecution of electoral offenders is not limited to persons who are outside the Commission.

Indeed, officials of the Commission, some of them highly placed, have been affected, including a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) currently being prosecuted in a High Court in Yola,” INEC said.