205
By Myke Agunwa
The Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, for contempt of court.
The court order, issued a few hours after Yakubu left office as INEC Chairman, followed a motion filed by the Action Alliance (AA) accusing the electoral body and its former head of disobeying a subsisting judgment. The suit, marked FHC/OS/CS/194/2024, was earlier decided by Justice Funmilola Demi-Ajayi, who directed INEC to upload the names of the party’s National Chairman, Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, and members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on its official portal.
In that ruling, the court affirmed that the party’s elective convention held on October 7, 2023, which produced Omoaje and his NEC members, was validly conducted and duly monitored by INEC officials, in line with the Action Alliance’s constitution and the Electoral Act. However, despite claiming to have implemented the ruling, INEC allegedly failed to upload Omoaje’s name on its website, though the names of other NEC and state chairmen appeared.
This partial compliance prompted the court to describe INEC’s conduct as contemptuous. In a fresh ruling dated October 7, 2025, and signed by Court Registrar O.M. Kilani, the court ordered the IGP to arrest and prosecute Yakubu and other defendants within seven days.
The court’s directive reads in part: “It is hereby ordered that the Inspector General of Police shall cause the arrest and shall charge the defendant/judgment debtors for contempt and committal proceedings within seven days of this ruling.”
The court also imposed a cost of ₦100,000 against the judgment creditors, reiterating the need for full compliance with its earlier orders.