JamzNG Latest News, Gist, Entertainment in Nigeria
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Joash Amupitan has warned that the African Democratic Party (ADC) risks repeating the scenario that occurred in Zamfara State after the 2019 elections.
Speaking on Arise television, Amupitan warned that every step taken by the election umpire in relation to the ADC leadership crisis had been determined by the courts, and that the commission was not taking sides in the conflict.
The INEC boss said if the David Mark faction of the ADC goes ahead with their convention without INEC supervision, then all their actions could be annulled by the courts, and whatever votes they got in the elections could be annulled.
According to him, what happened in Zamfara State in 2019, where the court granted victory to the second party with the most votes because of internal problems within the party that ranked first in the election, could happen again.
“If they (ADC) say we are taking sides, that is not true, because if we look at the status quo ante bellum, we are trying to interrogate it, and that means the status before hostilities, the status before war,” he said.
READ ALSO: ADC relies on emotion over law, risks no candidate in 2027 —Keyamo
In 2019, after a protracted legal dispute, the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019 issued a judgment annulling the victory of all All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections.
The APC candidate who had been declared the winner of the thirty-six elective positions in the state, consisting of the Governorship, National and State Assembly posts, lost his seat to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was the first runner-up in the election.
The court declared that the votes obtained by the APC in the state were in vain and stated that the party did not hold INEC-monitored primaries in Zamfara State and therefore, could not field candidates in the general election.
And as a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling, INEC held an emergency meeting to take a decision. At the end of the meeting the then chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu issued a statement summarizing the decision of the electoral body.
The most interesting thing about this statement is that the candidate from the PDP as the party with the second highest number of votes has been declared the winner of the election.
