David Lawani, Abuja
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakuku, has stated that part of the challenges with election management in Nigeria borders on the inability of political parties to conduct valid party primaries, leading to court cases and other sundry forms of litigations, and with increasing cost.

Yakubu gave this observation in a remark at the capacity-building workshop for justices and judges on election matters held at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja.

Sanwo-Olu Commissions mini housing scheme in Surulere

He said the commission had studied the judgments of the tribunals arising from both the general election and off-cycle governorship elections.

He explained that justices and judges must continue to offer judgments in line with the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act as a situation where a trial court sought to vary the judgment of the Supreme Court by ordering the commission to issue a Certificate of Return in favour of a candidate whose emergence during the party’s primary election has been nullified by the apex court (and affirmed by the same court following an application for clarification), put the commission in a difficult situation.

According to him, “As a consequence of a similar workshop organised ahead of the 2019 general election, we noticed a sharp reduction in the number of cases arising from that election and consequently a reduced number of elections nullified by the election petition tribunals.