By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA – Justice Ibrahim Auta of a Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, denied reports that he issued an order that stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from going ahead with its planned timetable for the conduct of the forthcoming general elections.

In a statement he issued through the Chief Registrar of the High Court, yesterday, Justice Auta insisted that the judgment he delivered on March 3, 2010, over the case that was filed before him by the Labour party, was grossly misconstrued.

According to him, “our attention has been drawn to newspaper reports alleging that his lordship, the honourable Justice Ibrahim Auta had on Thursday 3rd March 2011 declared INEC’s timetable for the holding of
the April 2011 elections, illegal, unconstitutional, void and of no effect whatsoever.

“For the avoidance of doubt, in order to put the record straight and to remove the confusion set in public places as a result of the said publication, created by the wrong interpretation and reporting of His Lordship’s Ruling of 3/3/2011, we state unequivocally that the content and import of Hid Lordship’s Order of3/3/2011 as follow:

“That section 25(1) of the Electoral Act, in so far as it repeats the provisions of sections 76(1), 116(1), 132(1) and 178(1) of the 1999 Constitution is inoperative and void for duplication, inconsistent and lacking legislative competency.

“That the plaintiff’s reliefs 2, 3, 4 are not granted as they have no meaning or merit at all.
“That the court has no power whatsoever to Order INEC not to go ahead as per the time table for the April 2011 Elections as provided by INEC.”

It would be recalled that it was widely reported that the court presided by Justice Auta, declared section 25 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 illegal and unconstitutional.

The said verdict was sequel to an action filed by the Labour Party, which had gone to court to challenge the locus of the National Assembly to order the sequence of election in the country.

The party had contended that the said Section 25 (1) of the Electoral Act which was relied on by the INEC to fix categories of elections billed for April, was inconsistent with section 40 of the 1999 constitution that guarantees freedom of association and the right of Nigerians to freely belong to any political party of their choice.