Assets declaration: Court restrains CCB, Police, others from investigating INEC chairman

• quashes allegations of breach of assets declaration form against INEC chairman

The Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri has thrown out an appeal filed against the judgment of the Federal High which declared that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu did not breach the Code of Conduct Bureau Assets Declaration Form.

In throwing out the appeal, the Court also restrained the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Nigerian Police Force, the EFCC, DSS and all other security agencies from further investigating or prosecution Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on the basis of the allegations of the Appellant.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by the the Presiding Justice, Hon. Justice Nosakhare Pemu, the appellate court held that the Appellant, Prince Njoku who was also the Plaintiff at the Federal High Court in Umuahia did not have the locus standi to initiate the case and therefore decided all three issues raised by the Appellant in favour of the Respondents.

Recall that Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) had alleged that there are plans to force the INEC chairman out of office using trumped-up charges.

CUPP spokesperson Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere while addressing journalists recently said, the online publication of voters register has irked some members of the ruling party.

He warned any judge who may want to be used to remove the INEC chairman to desist from such.

Ugochinyere said, “We, therefore, call on any Federal High Court judge before whom any form of application seeking the removal of the INEC Chairman from office is pending before to remit such files back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and not grant such order. We further call on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to also formally place this same demand before all judges of the Federal High Court. We have warned against this for the last time and shall not need to address it again.”

He said, “Countrymen, our intelligence is that following the publication of the voters register by the Commission on its website (note it is the entire register from 2011 till date), the initiators of the Omuma Magic, who many thought had ceased actions in their plot to remove the INEC Chairman set out again on the same ill-fated mission.

“This time, they claim that the INEC Chairman is working hard to see that the ruling party is voted out of office next year. They insist that INEC went beyond its bounds to publish the entire register, which has made it possible for citizens to make observations and objections on the register, particularly in states controlled by the ruling APC, to reduce their voting strength and prowess. On this basis, they claim the INEC Chairman is working for the opposition.

“It is for this purpose that the Nigerian opposition and, indeed, all Nigerian citizens of goodwill have resolved that we shall resist and reject any form of the arrest of the INEC Chairman when he returns to the country. We shall also vehemently resist and reject every form of resignation from office by the INEC Chairman, either forced or otherwise, or any other form or method of removal from office, as the Omuma Magic initiators now speak more boastfully and assuredly than before.

“We, therefore, call on any Federal High Court judge before whom any form of application seeking the removal of the INEC Chairman from office is pending before to remit such files back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and not grant such order. We further call on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to also formally place this same demand before all judges of the Federal High Court. We have warned against this for the last time and shall not need to address it again.