The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Joash Amupitan, has cautioned the African Democratic Congress against proceeding with its planned congresses and national convention without the commission’s supervision.
Amupitan issued the warning on Friday during an interview on Arise TV, following the party’s indication that it would go ahead with its convention despite INEC’s derecognition of the leadership linked to former Senate President David Mark and former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
He stressed that such actions could lead to serious legal consequences.
He explained that the commission’s decision is based on an existing court order, not on arbitrary discretion.
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“So if they are going ahead with their congress, with their convention, it’s left for them to look at it, whether it is in contravention of the court. INEC didn’t just take a decision. We didn’t just wake up one day and took this decision. There was something that led to it. There was an order of court,” he said.
Amupitan added that the court had explicitly instructed parties to avoid any steps that could undermine pending legal proceedings.
“Don’t do anything. Don’t take any step that will render any proceeding before the court nugatory,” he stated.
He pointed out that the issue of holding congresses and conventions is already under judicial consideration.
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“So, if already they are asking that don’t do any congress, don’t do any convention, it is a relief that is being claimed. And especially they filed a motion for that purpose, that motion has not been determined,” he said.
Citing past cases, Amupitan warned that defying court orders could nullify election results, resulting in the candidate with the second-highest votes being declared the winner.
“Let me tell you what happened in Zamfara. It happened in the past. We don’t want to conduct an election without this early warning, and at the end of the day, after you have won, the court again will come and declare the election invalid. And the implication is that the person with the second highest number of vote will be declared the winner,” he said.
He also mentioned Plateau State as another example where failure to comply with court directives affected electoral outcomes.
“It happened in Plateau State during the last election… failure to obey the court order has consequences,” Amupitan said.
While recognizing the party’s right to make its own decisions, he emphasized that INEC would not allow itself to be drawn into another preventable crisis.
“They are at liberty to do whatever they want to do, but INEC do not want to go into this situation again,” he said.
