Jail INEC Boss, Jega - De-registered Party Leaders

Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, which recently deregistered 28 political parties in the country has been dragged before a Federal High Court siting in Abuja over the deregistration of the parties, an act which one of the deregistered political parties, considers to be in breach of a pending suit it instituted against the electoral body.

The aggrieved party, Hope Democratic Party, HDP, is asking the court to grant an order compelling the chairman of the electoral body to appear before the court and show cause why he should not be committed to prison for contempt or attempt to ridicule and or preempt the court following the unwarranted and malicious publication issued recently by the electoral body purporting to have deregistered it while a matter instituted by the party against that action was pending before the court.

The national chairman of the party and its presidential candidate at last general election, Chief Ambrose Owuru appealed to the court to set aside the purported press release issued by INEC on 6 December concerning his party’s deregistration which, according to him, was designed to preempt and ridicule the court and destroy the subject matter of the party’s pending case.

Owuru told the court that his party instituted an action against the electoral body on 10 March, 2011 following an earlier threat by INEC to deregister it and served all the court processes on the electoral body but that the electoral body still went ahead to preempt the outcome of the matter by carrying out the threat by deregistering 28 political parties including the Hope Democratic Party.

He further contended that INEC deliberately orchestrated a sinister motive to avoid any appearance before the court and laid out plan to ridicule and embarrass the court by seeking ways to destroy the subject matter of the party’s case.
He urged the court to compel the Inec boss to appear before it and show cause why he should not be committed to prison for ridiculing the court.

The presiding judge, Justice E. S Chukwu who recently took over the case following the transfer of the former judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo to Taraba state, however declined to hear Hope Democratic Party’s motion exparte since it was filed before the court Monday morning. He however ordered that hearing notice be served on INEC as he fixed the case for hearing on Thursday, 13 December. (PMreport)