Revealed: INEC Will Release Okorocha’s Certificate Of Return If.. – Source

The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed its condition on issuing ex-governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha his certificate of return as a senator-elect.

This is even as the Court of Appeal, Abuja, last week ordered the prompt hearing of the suit he (Okorocha) filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Naija News reports.

An INEC source, according to This Day said, the commission would not give Okorocha, his certificate of return unless compelled by the court to do so. He gave a notice that INEC was ready to pursue the matter up to the Supreme Court.

Okorocha had approached the court for relief following INEC’s refusal to release his certificate of return on the ground that his declaration as winner of the senatorial election was done under duress.

The INEC source said the commission would use the Okorocha case to test the law because this was not the first time it would happen and that it needed to stop so it would not become the norm.

The official said there was a similar case in Bayelsa in 2015 in the election to the state House of Assembly when a candidate forced a returning officer to declare him the winner by pointing a gun at his head.

The then INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, he said, refused to give the person a certificate of return.

The aggrieved candidate eventually won his case at the appeal tribunal after Jega had left, forcing the incumbent INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, to give him his certificate of return.

“We want to test this case up to the Supreme Court to know the position of the law on this matter. The idea that anybody can force an electoral officer to declare result under duress is unacceptable. We must put an end to such rascality,” the source stated.