The Labour Party (LP) is calling for the removal of the INEC chairman and requesting an investigation into the commission’s activities.
Akin Osuntokun, the Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, is calling for the immediate dismissal and prosecution of Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for his alleged involvement in the 2023 presidential elections.
Osuntokun is also demanding a thorough forensic financial investigation into all expenditures and donations received by INEC before, during, and after the elections. He made these demands during an international press conference held at the party’s campaign headquarters in Abuja.
In addition to the dismissal and prosecution of Yakubu, Osuntokun insists on investigating the financial activities related to the budgeted disbursements, donations received by INEC, and the appropriation of N300 billion from the national purse, as well as funds and materials received from international donor agencies.
These demands come in the aftermath of the February 25 election, in which the All Progressives Congress candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was announced as the winner with 8,794,726 votes. Both the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, rejected the results and alleged violence and rigging.
Osuntokun claimed that evidence provided by the PDP and LP supported their suspicions of election irregularities and called for punitive measures against Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, as well as other top administrative and field staff allegedly complicit in the irregularities.
He also cautioned against any further intimidation of the European Union and other election observers over their reports on the elections. Osuntokun criticized the negative responses to the EU report and other observer reports, stating that they were out of touch with the nation’s sentiment and contrasting with the selective celebration of the 2019 election reports by the same observer groups.
Osuntokun urged the international community to take appropriate action against Yakubu, Okoye, and other top INEC staff involved in the alleged desecration of the elections based on the final observer group reports. He emphasized the need for the judiciary to thoroughly examine the evidence, the law, and the flawed processes of the elections to arrive at a legally correct and widely acknowledged verdict.
