Sixteen political parties have threatened to drag Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court over INEC’s guidelines for the general elections. The threat by the political parties, operating under the aegis of Coalition of United Political Parties,CUPP, and Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, came after they unanimously rejected the draft guidelines presented to them by the electoral umpire by the INEC chief, Mahmood Yakubu. In statement signed on January 13, 2019 by CUPP’s first national spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, the 61 aggrieved parties said they will file a legal suit today to stop INEC from releasing the guideline and also quash some sections of the draft guideline, which were in conflict with the provisions of the 1999 constitution, including the obnoxious provisions inserted into the guideline which will lead to massive rigging of the 2019 elections.
The parties stated: “The suit which will be filed tomorrow (today),at the Federal High Court by 10am has four national chairmen of four political parties suing on behalf of the rest of the 61 political parties against the guideline.” “Ikenga Ugochinyere, APP; Dr Sam Eke,GPN; Nsehe Nseobong, RP Party and Barr. Kenneth Udeze, AA, will be seeking an exparte application for an injunction to restrain INEC chairman from going ahead with Monday’s planned release of the controversial guideline which majority of the nation’s political parties (over 61) have rejected over non-consultation, obnoxious clauses and violation of the Constitution.”
