Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to quash the arrest order issued against him by an Abuja Federal High Court over alleged contempt.
In the appeal filed by his counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), the INEC boss claimed the court acted in bad faith in the issuance of the arrest order because he had already filed a pending appeal against the order and the attention of the judge drawn to the appeal.
Yakubu said the trial court breached section 36 of the 1999 Constitution by striking out his motion without hearing it, thereby denying him his right to fair hearing in the determination on merit of his application.
He therefore asked the appellate court to quash the proceedings of August 1 when the said order was made.
Justice Stephen Pam had on Wednesday issued the bench warrant after Prof Yakubu failed to turn up for the third time, over the proceeding on the Anambra State PDP chairmanship dispute.
PDP chieftain, Ejike Oguebego had accused the INEC chairman of refusal to recognize him as the party chairman in Anambra State, as ordered by the Supreme Court in December 2014.
No date was fixed hearing of the INEC boss’s appeal.
