By Baron Ike
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the fate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state has already been sealed by the Supreme Court.
The Commission’s Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu maintained that there must to be an end to litigation.
He said the Commission would always respect court orders but not when the apex court of the land has taken a final decision on the same matter.
“I think the Supreme Court has made a number of pronouncements on that matter and for that reason, the commission has taken a position going by that judgment. Under our constitution, the Supreme Court is the last court of resort for anyone and there must be an end to litigation as lawyers say.
“When the Supreme Court makes a pronouncement, all persons and authorities in the Federal Republic of Nigeria are bound by the decision and so the commission as a law abiding institution will abide by the judgement. There is nowhere else to go. We go by the judgement.
“When the apex court has spoken, that is the end of the road for all litigations”, he stated.
Yakubu dropped the hint on Wednesday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the state of preparedness of the commission for the coming polls.
He also said the conclusion of declaration of the 2019 Presidential Election results would not take longer than the 2015 elections in spite of the sheer number of presidential candidates, size of the result sheets and increased voter population.
Yakubu reiterated that the Commission has achieved a 100 percent reconfiguration of its 180, 000 smart card readers ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections on Saturday, February 23.
On the PVC collection rate, the INEC Chairman said information in that regard would be available from Thursday.