Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, says President Bola Tinubu doesn’t have the constitutional energy to ship the Nationwide Chairman of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on terminal go away.
Falana mentioned this in a press release on Friday following a viral report alleging that Tinubu had ordered the INEC boss to proceed on obligatory go away to avenge his alleged last-minute betrayal of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
In response to the hypothesis, the INEC boss was ordered to droop official duties forward of the expiration of his tenure, a transfer mentioned to have unsettled INEC’s schedule.
The hypothesis gathered momentum after the electoral physique cancelled its quarterly consultative assembly with political events and a deliberate session with civil society organisations, which had been scheduled to start on Wednesday.
Reacting, nevertheless, the senior lawyer careworn that constitutional provisions had made it unattainable for Tinubu to lawfully order Yakubu on terminal go away.
“Not like different federal govt our bodies, the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee, its powers to make its personal guidelines or in any other case regulate its personal process shall not be topic to the approval or management of the President.
“To that extent, President Bola Tinubu can not direct the INEC chairman to proceed on terminal go away,” he mentioned.
