AC’s latest attack on Iwu, the height of desperation - INEC

By Tayo Ligali - 16.03.2008

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the recent attempt made by some members of the Action Congress to discredit the chairman of the commission as an act of desperation.

According to INEC in a release signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman, Andy Ezeani, and made available to Sunday Tribune, “the attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission has been drawn to newspapers report on the desperate attempt of some people using the platform of the AC to pursue a fresh line of attack on the chairman of the commission.

According to the reports, individuals purporting to represent AC approached an Abuja Court to pray that the appointment of Prof. Maurice Iwu as INEC chairman be annulled as they have just discovered that the INEC chairman, apart from being a Nigerian also has the citizenship of the United States of America.

“The petitioners said the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Senate of the Federal Republic may not have known of this their new earth-shaking discovered. They therefore pray the court to help them sack Prof Iwu and cancel all the results of the 2007 general elections.”

The commission noted that “put succinctly, what this one-man driven AC is asking the Federal High Court to do for it is to achieve through the back-door what it has failed to achieved in the election petition tribunals.

And where they cannot achieve the reversal they want, they are also asking the court to ensure that Prof. Iwu does not preside over the conduct of by-elections as have been ordered by various election petition tribunals.