The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been called upon to impose sanctions on Yagbagi Yusuf Sani, the National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP).
This appeal was made by the Guardian of Democracy and Development Initiative (GoDDI) in a protest letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC, Mahmud Yakubu.
As reported by Prime 9ja Online, the group had previously urged the party's leadership to immediately suspend the National Chairman.
This call was prompted by an earlier report in which Musa Mohammad Ali, the House of Representatives candidate for the Nasarawa Constituency in Kano State for the 2023 general election, demanded the withdrawal of a letter sent to INEC.
Ali alleged that the letter, which was attached to a forged death certificate in his name, had been submitted by Sani and the National Secretary of the party, Victor Fingesi, before the general elections. The letter notified the Commission of Ali's replacement, falsely claiming that he was deceased.
On Monday, GoDDI staged a protest at the headquarters of INEC, urging the commission to exercise its powers as stipulated in the electoral act to sanction Sani. The group submitted a petition to INEC, which was read out to journalists by Comrade Igwe Ude-Umanta, its Director of Strategy, Research and Documentation.
In the petition, the group stated, “It is a crime that contravenes both religious, secular and moral laws. It is roundly reprehensible and the perpetrators must not be associated with civilised people and INEC, having criminally misled it and made INEC effect a fraudulent and illegal replacement of candidate(s).”
The group further urged INEC to dissociate itself from the perpetrators, ensure their prosecution, and cease all engagements with their political party until it is cleansed.
In a previous conversation, Sani, the ADP National Chairman, responded to the allegations against him, stating, “Is [the allegation] against me as a person or as the Chairman of ADP? They are two different things.” When informed that he had been accused of forging the death certificates of some candidates and declaring them dead, he added, “I didn’t do that as a person. It was the party that did that.” He further dismissed the allegations as false.