An INEC staff had allegedly sworn an affidavit at the Federal High Court, Damaturu, on the suit between Messr Lawan and Machina without the permission of the commission.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, disowned one of its staff members for swearing to an affidavit in court on the disputed Yobe North Senatorial primary election.
The commission, in a statement by its spokesperson, Festus Okoye, in Abuja, said it did not authorise the affidavit sworn to by the unnamed staffer at the Federal High Court, Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.
For over a month now, there have been legal tussles over who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the district between the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and a former lawmaker, Bashir Machina.
Mr Machina was elected as a candidate in the primary election supervised by INEC officials in the district but the name of Mr Lawan, who did not participate in the exercise, was surprisingly forwarded to the electoral body by the ruling APC leadership in June.
At the time the primary was held, Mr Lawan was pursuing his presidential ambition which he failed having lost to Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State.
The position of the ruling party has also been rejected by the electoral body, which has insisted that it will stand by the report of its monitoring team on the election.
The monitoring team had declared Mr Machina as the winner of the exercise.
PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday reported a twist in the entire case when a staffer of the commission in the Department of Litigation and Prosecution, filed a motion countering the position of the INEC.
A civil society organisation, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), had expressed concern over the development wondering if INEC would be able to deliver credible elections in 2023.
In a document seen by this newspaper, the staffer dismissed the election that brought in Mr Machina and claimed that another primary election was conducted in the district with Mr Lawan emerging as the winner.Staffer acted on his own
Mr Okoye said the staffer who swore to the affidavit acted on his own.
He did not, however, disclose the name of the staffer nor did he mention the department he works in.
"The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn to a counter affidavit purportedly filed in the Federal High Court, Damaturu Judicial Division relating to the Yobe North Senatorial District primary election.
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"Notwithstanding the matter in Court and without prejudice to the consideration or likely outcome of the case in court, the Commission reiterates its earlier position that it stands by the report of its monitoring team and it was on the basis of that report that the Commission did not publish the name and personal particulars of any candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District," Mr Okoye said.
He also said NEC will "review its quality assurance protocols, including the preview by appropriate ranking officials of all processes filed on its behalf to ascertain their correctness in all material particulars with all reports and all information at its disposal before their presentation so that a situation like this is not repeated."
The case between Messrs Machina and Lawan is one out of thousands of legal cases and petitions that emanated from the just concluded primaries held by the 18 political parties in the country.
