Guber elections: Court to hear suit seeking INEC chairman’s imprisonment Thursday

A motion to commit Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, to prison for allegedly disobeying a court order, will have a formal hearing on Thursday, September 14, at the FCT High Court in Bwari.

Justice Mohammed Madugu set the date after receiving a committal charge related to a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Ajara with the case number FCT/HC/CV/4068/2023.

Otunba Camaru Lateef Ogidan and Mustapha Rabiu are the lawsuit’s plaintiffs; however, Chief Victor Oye and Prof. Yakubu are its first and second respondents.
Under the direction of Chief Edozie Njoku, the party’s national chairman, Messrs. Ogidan and Rabiu won the positions of National Vice Chairman, South West Geopolitical Zone of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and National Welfare Officer, respectively, at the Owerri Convention on May 31, 2019.

Oye and Mahmood were accused in the application of disobeying and disregarding the court’s interim injunction issued on May 10 that required the parties to the suit to maintain the status quo ante bellum until the September 28 deadline for the substantive matter’s resolution.

In order to promote governorship candidates for APGA in the Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa elections on November 11 that did not originate from Chief Njoku, Mr. Yakubu allegedly refused to acknowledge Chief Njoku as the legitimate national chairman of the party.

According to the report, despite a court injunction, INEC’s director continued to identify Oye as the national chairman of the APGA.

According to the motion, Oye also convened a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council, or NEC, in violation of a court order that forbade him from organising any gatherings or holding conventions or campaigns in the party’s name.

As part of the injunction, Chief Victor Oye was also told to stop posing as the APGA’s national chairman, according to the statement.

When the case was called on Monday, Ajara, the plaintiffs’ attorney, informed the court that the motion had been ripe for hearing and had been served on the INEC chairman on July 13. The court confirmed this information from its records.

Even though Ajara had certified true copies, or CTCs, of the documents for the two respondents, it was almost unable to locate a copy of the certification of service of the contempt proceedings on Oye in the court file.

The Chief Registrar, Joseph Igboyi, was called to the judge’s attention in an effort to clear up the confusion to confirm if he was the one who signed the CTC, and he acknowledged that he was.

The bailiff, Musa Abdulwahab, admitted removing the original copy of the proof of service from the judge’s file when he was asked to show it. The proof of service was supposed to be in the judge’s file.

Mr. Musa never explained why he took the proof of service out of the court file, and this development led to a contentious exchange in court.

In light of this, Justice Madugu postponed Oye’s case until a hearing on September 28.