The head of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Legal Department in Kano, Suleiman Alkali, has blamed the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for confusion over purported withdrawal of the commission’s appeal against the tribunal’s judgement.
In a controversial judgement delivered on September 20, the tribunal sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the election.
INEC had on October 3 filed a 33-ground appeal through its lawyer, A.B Mahmood, SAN.
But Mr Alkali, who signed the letter letter of withdrawal of the appeal, told Daily Trust in a chat that it was the tribunal secretariat that requested the electoral umpire to write the said letter.
Speaking behind the issuance of the letter in the first place and later withdrawn, he told the newspaper the tribunal requested the letter.
“The letter was mischievously requested by the Tribunal Secretary and I wrote to them for a purpose and they deliberately escalated it. The letter had been withdrawn. It no longer has legal backing,” he said via a text message.
While the tribunal secretary did not respond to inquiries of the newspaper, an official at the tribunal registry, who asked not to be identified, told its reporter during a visit to the registry on Saturday that the letter was never submitted.
“We did not receive anything here and if they claim that, they should produce the acknowledged copy.
“When he (the HOD legal) approached us with the issue via phone we said no and asked him to put it formally in writing.
“However, we are not the ones to entertain that but our head office in Abuja. We also work under directives of our superiors,” one of the officials, who asked not to be mentioned confirmed.
But INEC in a statement issued Saturday by Sam Olumekun, the national commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, said the letter written by Mr Alkali was not authorised by the commission.
“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reports based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case.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 It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.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,” Mr Olumekun said.
