Tinubu Did Not Sack INEC Chairman, Says Obono-Obla

Former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has debunked reports alleging that President Bola Tinubu has sacked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

In a statement made available to THE WHISTLER on Thursday, Obono-Obla said reports by some online platforms (not THE WHISTLER) suggesting that the President had removed Yakubu from office were false, misleading, and legally untenable.

“It is both infantile and puerile to witness blazing headlines on certain online platforms claiming that the President has ‘sacked’ the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, by directing him to proceed on terminal leave ahead of the expiration of his tenure on 18 October 2025. Today is 25 September 2025—barely three weeks to the constitutionally mandated end of Professor Yakubu’s second term,” Obono-Obla stated.

The former Special Assistant to the President (Prosecution) queried the logic of describing a directive to proceed on leave as a sack, noting that the INEC Chairman’s tenure was already coming to an end by law.

“How, then, does asking someone whose tenure is set to lapse by law in three weeks to proceed on leave amount to a sack?

“It beggars belief that media outlets would feast on such patently false narratives, which lack both legal substance and logical coherence,” he said.

Clarifying the constitutional process for removing the INEC boss, Obono-Obla stressed that the President lacks the unilateral power to dismiss the Chairman of the commission.

“The truth of the matter is this: the President has no unilateral power to sack the Chairman of INEC. If the Chairman commits any act contrary to the law that warrants removal, the President is constitutionally required to present an address detailing the allegations against him before the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“For the removal to be effected, the address must be supported by a two-thirds majority of the Senate,” he explained.

Breaking it down further, the former Presidential aide noted, “Mathematically, two-thirds of the 109 members of the Senate amounts to 73 senators voting in favour of the removal.”

Obono-Obla also cited Section 157(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which provides the framework for the removal of the INEC Chairman and other related officials.

The section states, “A person holding any of the offices to which this section applies may only be removed by the President acting on an address supported by a two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) or for misconduct.”

According to him, any media narrative portraying Yakubu’s situation as a “sack” not only ignores this constitutional safeguard but also misleads the public on the true position of the law.

“Therefore, any suggestion that the President has ‘sacked’ the INEC Chairman without following this constitutional procedure is not only misleading but legally untenable,” Obono-Obla declared.