Controversy over the weekend trailed alleged withdrawal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from appealing the judgment of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal at the Court of Appeal.

Drama started when the Commission's Head of Legal Department in DKano, Suleiman Alkali, in a letter dated October 6, 2023 and addressed to the Secretary of the Kano Governorship Tribunal, wrote to notify the tribunal about its withdrawal from the appeal and subsequently withdrew the letter and its earlier position.

A copy of the letter in circulation and going viral read, "I have been instructed by the Commission Headquarters that INEC as an umpire have no reason to appeal any judgment.

"Consequently, the National Commission In charge of Legal Services and National Commissioner in charge of Kano Zone directed that the appeal be withdrawn and all processes for all appeals should be forwarded to the Kano Office."

After some hours, the same Head of Legal Department told newsmen that he had withdrawn the earlier letter written to the tribunal.

Alkali, while speaking behind the issuance of the letter in the first place and later withdrawal, said the tribunal requested the letter.

"The letter was mischievously requested by the Tribunal Secretary and I wrote to them for a purpose and they deliberately escalated it. The letter had been withdrawn. It no longer has legal backing," he said via text message to newsmen.

Meanwhile, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Committee on Information and Voter Education, Sam Olumekun, said, yesterday, that the commission's legal officer who purportedly withdrew from the case has been reprimanded.