He explained that many issues in which INEC was not a party were being woven around the commission just to disparage it.

"You see two candidates from the same party obtaining different injunctions and orders to stop their nominations and INEC would be blamed for obeying the one communicated to it. We have some cases like that currently being investigated by the security and many also are subject of litigation," he said.

On the apprehension of the people that barely a month to the election, the INEC had not released and published the voters’ register, Umeadi dismissed the fears as unfounded, saying that the commission had since released the register and even forwarded it to all the political parties in soft copies, via diskette.

However, the vice president has warned that Nigeria is heading for anarchy if the INEC does not stop flouting court orders on the issue of disqualification of candidates for next month’s elections.

In a statement by the Atiku Campaign Organization, the vice president argues that INEC’s position was a clear affront on the judiciary as, "a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had resolved all the issues on the powers of INEC to disqualify candidates from the election."

The statement said: "The court judgment is unequivocal about the powers to disqualify candidates in the election. This mischief about the constitution rather than INEC disqualifying candidates is dangerous and unprecedented in the annals of election administration in the country. The constitution expressly grants the power to disqualify candidates to the courts and the Abuja High Court judgment expressly stated this.

"Justice Babs Kuewumi addressed this issue in his judgment by submitting that ‘Section 137 (for president) and 182 (for governor) of the constitution also contains provisions that ab-initio disqualifies an intending candidate aspiring to the office of president and governor respectively. However, none of these provisions in my view empower the defendant (INEC) to issue an order disqualifying a candidate.’

"Commenting specifically on where lies the power of disqualifying candidates for the election, Justice Kuewumi, in granting the sixth relief sought by the AC and Vice President Atiku Abubakar when he stated as follows: ‘The power to disqualify any candidate sponsored by any political party, including the 1st plaintiff (AC) from contesting any election is vested in the courts as provided for in Section 32(5) of the Electoral Act 2006 and in any other legislation that is validly enacted in that behalf.’

"The judgment is therefore, clear, unequivocal and specific about who has the powers to disqualify candidates for the election. The mischief that it is the constitution and not INEC, which purportedly disqualifies Vice President Abubakar from the election, is therefore, a strange imputation into the Nigerian legal system that is clearly an invitation to anarchy. Or is INEC inviting aggrieved candidates to sue the constitution?

"We note that INEC has indeed, gone to the Appeal Court to challenge the High Court judgment. It is a waste of taxpayers’ money for INEC, a publicly funded commission, to be seeking further clarification on a matter so clear and obvious.

"We affirm our position that it is only the courts that can disqualify a candidate from the election as clearly stated in the constitution and affirmed by the court. INEC now claims the court judgment did not expressly mention the vice president. We must then ask if the constitution that Iwu says disqualifies the vice president expressly mentions Atiku anywhere in the entire text.

"INEC, as an independent arbiter and referee in the election, should have no interest in the qualification of any candidate. What then is INEC’s interest in filing an appeal against a declaratory judgment?"