The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has vowed to pursue its appeal on the judgement of Kano Election Petition Tribunal.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the head of commission’s legal department in Kano, Suleiman Alkali, on Friday issued a letter, expressing the commission’s resolve to withdrew its appeal.
“Consequently, the National Commission In charge if Legal Services and National Commissioner in charge of Kano zone directed that the appeal be withdrawn and all processes for all Appeals should be forwarded to the Kano Office,” the letter, addressed to the secretary of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, read.
But INEC in a statement by Sam Olumekun, the national commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, said the letter written by Mr Alkali was not authorised by the commission.
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to media reports based on a letter written by the Legal Officer of our Kano State office indicating that the Commission had withdrawn from the appeal process in the ongoing Kano Governorship election petition case.
“We wish to state categorically that the letter was not authorised. It has since been withdrawn and the officer reprimanded.
“The public is therefore advised to discountenance the insinuation that the Commission has withdrawn from the case or even worse abandoned the appeal.
“We wish to state categorically that where litigants join INEC in a case, the Commission is under obligation to respond accordingly. We have therefore instructed our lawyers to proceed in line with extant policy of the Commission.
“The policy has not changed,” Mr Olumekun said.
