Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, says President Bola Tinubu does not have the constitutional power to send the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on terminal leave.
Falana said this in a statement on Friday following a viral
report alleging that Tinubu had ordered the INEC boss to proceed on compulsory
leave to avenge his alleged last-minute betrayal of the ruling All Progressives
Congress, APC.
According to the speculation, the INEC boss was ordered to
suspend official duties ahead of the expiration of his tenure, a move said to
have unsettled INEC’s schedule.
The speculation gathered momentum after the electoral body
cancelled its quarterly consultative meeting with political parties and a
planned session with civil society organisations, which had been scheduled to
begin on Wednesday.
Reacting, however, the senior lawyer stressed that constitutional
provisions had made it impossible for Tinubu to lawfully order Yakubu on
terminal leave.
“Unlike other federal executive bodies, the Independent
National Electoral Commission, its powers to make its own rules or otherwise
regulate its own procedure shall not be subject to the approval or control of
the President.
“To that extent, President Bola Tinubu cannot direct the
INEC chairman to proceed on terminal leave,” he said.
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