Prominent legal scholar Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, acted under undue external pressure when INEC withdrew recognition from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by former President David Mark.<\/p>\n
In a post on X late Wednesday, Odinkalu said he had \u201cimpeccable\u201d information that there was a pre-signed resignation letter associated with Amupitan\u2019s appointment. He claimed the existence of such a letter was allegedly used as leverage to push Amupitan into issuing the INEC release that affected the ADC.<\/p>\n
Odinkalu also noted that the decision came shortly after senior INEC officials reportedly met with representatives from the Presidency and judicial authorities, including Court of Appeal justices and the Federal High Court\u2014raising concerns about how the commission is handling court judgments.<\/p>\n
The legal scholar criticised INEC for what he described as interpreting the Court of Appeal\u2019s decision on its own. According to Odinkalu, INEC should not interpret appellate court rulings, and any ambiguity should have been taken back to the court for clarification.<\/p>\n
Beyond the immediate controversy, Odinkalu warned that the incident could be part of a wider plan to influence Nigeria\u2019s political landscape ahead of the 2027 general elections. He suggested this could be done by limiting political competition and effectively restricting the space for opposition parties, leaving only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a permitted alternative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf these allegations are true,\u201d Odinkalu said, \u201cthe credibility of Nigeria\u2019s electoral process\u2014and potentially the stability of the country\u2014could be at risk,\u201d adding that it could undermine confidence in the fairness of the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prominent legal scholar Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, acted under undue external pressure when INEC withdrew recognition from the African Democratic Congress...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t