Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to arrest and bring the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to court.
This is due to the failure of the INEC boss to appear in court and refusal to obey a valid order court.
Justice Pam earlier on August 1st, 2018, gave the warrant of arrest of Professor Yakubu following his absence in court to give the reason why he should not be sent to prison for contempt of court.
The contempt proceeding was filed by Ejike Oguebego and Chuks Okoye, Chairman and Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Anambra State respectively.
Following the service of Form 49 on Professor Mahmood, the court summoned him to show cause why he should not be committed to prison for having disobeyed the order of the court made on December 5, 2014.
The judge recollected that the matter was adjourned to August 8, for a continuation of the contempt proceeding against INEC, and its Chairman, Professor Mahmood.
During the continuation of the trial on Wednesday, August 8, Justice Pam demanded to know from the counsel to the INEC Chairman, Adegboyega Awomolo, why he was not in court.
Replying, Awomolo said he does not know where the INEC chairman is and that it is beyond his brief to produce his client. He added that if the court wants the INEC chairman to appear in court, the IGP should produce him.
However, in his ruling, Justice Pam noted that the order of August 1st was still subsisting and has not been set aside or discharged.
The matter was then adjourned till August 14th for the continuation of committal proceedings.
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