INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu threatens to sue political party over defamation

According to a news that was published by the Vanguard paper online this evening, it was reported that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has advised officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to desist from maligning his character in the media or risk being sued for libel, if they do not desist.

Information that was given made it known that, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, was the one who revealed the statement to the public. Mahmood said this while reacting to calls by the Peoples Democratic Party, on him to step down for his handling of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, as he said the PDP should go to court and present the bagful of evidence it claims to have rather than subjecting the process to a media trial and tarnishing his image.

Mahmood 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 and interestingly, the party 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’.

Further talking, he said the PDP did not give the evidence to prove its claims that, Mahmood Yakubu, sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results from polling units.