The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, says that the commission has been dragged to court 1,600 times over the conduct of the 2019 polls.
Yakubu stated this while addressing newsmen shortly after the Kaduna State chapter of the National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) conferred an award of excellence on him on Saturday.
Fielding questions on whether the nation could have rancour-free elections, the INEC boss said, “We can have election that is free, but elections start from party primaries, because they produce the candidates for the general election.
“However, before the last general elections, we had some of the most acrimonous party primaries in the history of elections in Nigeria, resulting to a large number of litigations.
“As we speak, INEC has been dragged to court 809 times over the conduct of primaries by political parties. If you add that to the post-election litigations, we have so far been dragged to court over 1,600 times.
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“ So, we have been dragged to court over party primaries, the suits challenging the conduct of the election.
“That not withstanding, elections can be free and fair; we are doing our best as an electoral commission, but INEC has its responsibilities clearly cut out, others have theirs, especially the political parties have theirs. But, working together, we will actually get to where we desire to be,” he said.