Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday refuted allegations against the commission that it has disclosed a court order over the removal of Ambassador Rufus Akeju as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Osun State.
Jega, through his chief press secretary, Kayode Idowu, stated this while responding to “a repeated claim” by Senator Iyiola Omisore that Jega is in defiance of a court order removing Ambassador Rufus Akeju as the resident electoral commissioner for Osun State.
Omisore, however, restated this allegation in separate newspaper (not LEADERSHIP) interviews that a court has restrained INEC from recognising Mr Akeju as REC, but that the Chairman persists in defiance of that order by failing to remove the REC.
But Idowu, yesterday, said there is no subsisting court order against Ambassador Akeju as Osun State REC.In a statement, he said, “Ordinarily INEC, as a neutral umpire, would not want to take issue with political partisans of whatever inclination. But because the commission’s silence may be mistaken by the unwary public as a proof of veracity of Senator Omisore’s claim, it has become imperative to make clear that there is no subsisting court order against Ambassador Akeju as Osun State REC.
“True, in a ruling on 23rd March, 2011 by the Federal High Court in Oshogbo, Hon Justice Babs Kuewumi gave an interlocutory order of injunction restraining INEC from recognising the REC pending the hearing and determination of the originating summons in the suit. But the commission’s lawyers lodged an appeal and filed a motion for stay of execution of the interlocutory order.
Leadership
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