Call for INEC chairman’s sack baseless, APP tells LP

The Action People’s Party, APP, has said the call by Labour Party, LP for the sack of the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, is baseless.

Labour Party had on Thursday called for the immediate dismissal and prosecution of Prof. Yakubu.

The opposition party and its presidential campaign council asked the international community to take “punitive action” against the INEC chairman and other top officials of the electoral body over the conduct of the 2023 elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the Director-General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun called for the investigation of the financial allocations and donor funds to INEC for the elections.

But, APP in a statement by its national chairman, Uche Nnadi, on Friday, expressed support to the INEC chairman, saying that the call for his sack was baseless.

Nnadi said that rather than attacking the electoral body, political parties should channel thier energy on the politicians that played major roles in electoral violence and voter apathy experienced during the last general elections.

He also said that Labour Party was indicting itself by calling on the international community to take “punitive action” against Yakubu and other top officials of the electoral body over the conduct of the 2023 elections, when the party was a major beneficiary of that outcome, given the number of seats it won in gubernatorial, National and State Assembly elections.

Nnadi further advised the Labour Party to stay away from such utterances, as the political party is in court challenging the outcome of the presidential election, as doing so is subjudice.

He added that the electoral body is entitled to get donor funds from any organisation.