Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has threatened to sue the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for defamation.
Yakubu warned PDP officials on Friday not to malign his character in the media or risk being sued for libel.
In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the INEC Chairman responded to the PDP’s call for him to resign over the handling of the presidential and National Assembly elections.
In his statement, Oyekanmi urged the PDP to go to court and present the evidence it claims to have rather than subjecting the process to a media trial.
He said;
The latest call by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, just like it did previously for the resignation of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is misplaced.
Interestingly, the PDP did not provide any convincing evidence to back up all the spurious allegations it listed as Prof. Yakubu’s ‘infractions’.
To be sure, the PDP failed to provide any evidence to substantiate the allegations of Yakubu’s ‘brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, and criminal manipulation and alteration of election results’.
The PDP also did not give the evidence to prove its claims that Prof. Yakubu ‘sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results from polling units.’
Besides, the ‘several evidences’ that the PDP claimed ‘abound in the six geo-political zones of the country where winning figures scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC’ were also not laid bare.
To be sure, the Commission does not rig elections. Rather, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS has, since its introduction, among other innovations, ensuring the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring that only properly registered voters are allowed to vote on Election Day.
It is common knowledge that the PDP has rejected the outcome of the presidential election and has vowed to challenge it in court.
The path of honour for the party, therefore, is to pursue its case in court, armed with all the evidence at its disposal and wait for the court’s decision.
But going about canvassing the same issues the party intends to plead in court on the pages of newspapers and calling for the resignation of the INEC Chairman is like putting the cart before the horse.
More importantly, the PDP is hereby reminded that making libellous allegations against the person of the INEC Chairman is actionable. The party should henceforth desist from the practice.
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