The Youth Party has resolved to initiate contempt proceedings against the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, “for refusing to obey a Court of Appeal judgment”.

The Party made this known yesterday after an emergency meeting of its Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee, NEC.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Ayodele Adio, the party described the actions of Mr. Yakubu as unbecoming, regrettable, undemocratic, and unacceptable of a supposed electoral umpire.

He said: “Despite a Court of Appeal judgment in our favour, INEC has gone ahead to exclude us from the electoral process by denying the party access to the voter’s register. Additionally, the Commission has refused to receive or acknowledged any of our letters.”

The party also stated that should INEC continue its unconstitutional exclusionary policy against the party, there is every chance that the general election will be deemed null and void for failure to allow a registered party to participate in the election.

“To avoid a constitutional quagmire, we are urging INEC to do the responsible and democratic thing by respecting the Court of Appeal’s judgment to include us in all election processes leading up to 2023,” Mr. Adio said.

He further expressed grave concern for the fragility of Nigeria’s democracy, noting that the first sign of the failure of a democracy is the abuse of judicial decisions.

He added that “We must never tolerate a situation where public officers can flagrantly disregard judicial decisions or judgments from the court.

“It doesn’t matter if the person is the Chairman of INEC or the clerk in ministry. Nothing threatens democracies more than the destruction and humiliation of its judicial institutions.”

 The party finally noted that it would be releasing the guidelines for the 2023 elections, having received recommendations from the committee setup to review and advise its NEC.