You risk ending up in jail – APC chieftain warns INEC boss, Yakubu

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has warned that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, risks jail term if he (Yakubu) refuses to enlist the party in the Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

Eze advised the INEC boss not to allow misleading interpretations of court judgements on Rivers elections put him into judicial troubles.

Eze, a former spokesperson of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, gave the advice in a statement on Thursday.

He decried the statement of Prof Yakubu on the participation of the Rivers APC in the elections, to the effect that the party would not be fielding candidates in the elections in Rivers.

He said there was no judgement of the Supreme Court barring the APC from fielding candidates in the elections, adding that if the INEC chairman allowed himself to be misled and used by those he described as enemies of true democracy and rob Rivers people the opportunity of making a choice they would prefer in the elections, the legal repercussions might be what he would live to regret all through his remaining days on earth.

He reiterated that INEC has no reason not to include the governorship, federal and state assembly candidates in the rescheduled general elections, citing various decisions of higher courts to justify the party’s position, and saying the INEC should include APC in the ballot without further delay.

“Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, wherein he committed to obey a so-called judgment of the Supreme Court, mysteriously premised on error, falsehood and deliberately misleading as there is no Supreme Court judgment anywhere authorizing INEC to delist APC candidates in Rivers state.

“With this fact, I am advising the INEC leadership not to constitute themselves into enemies of democracy by obeying a non-existent Supreme Court judgment. Hence the chairman of INEC must be well guided by credible evidence and not mere media misrepresentations and misinterpretation, which are mischievously aimed at destroying an entire political future of a State.

“For the records, APC had, in a letter, which was addressed to the INEC Chairman, dated February 19, through its like; Messrs Tuduru Ede and Co, argued that the APC duly submitted the list of its candidates for Rivers state for the 2019 general elections in line with the timetable and schedule of activities released by the commission,” Eze said.