Former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has asked President Bola Tinubu to remove from office the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu.

Agbakoba in a statement, yesterday, said the INEC boss must leave office by resignation or removal, otherwise the electoral reform task in Nigeria would be impeded.

In the statement signed by his Media Assistant, Niyi Odunmorayo, Agbakoba commended the President for getting rid of Godwin Emefiele as governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and AbdulRasheed Bawa as chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

He said: “Full congratulations go to President Tinubu for getting rid of Emefiele and Bawa, fuel subsidy and forex corruption. Endemic corruption has suffered a massive blow.

“Next is for the president to dismantle INEC. Everyone will agree that logistically, the 2023 elections are the worst in our history.

“I do not refer to the merits of the results of the elections. Many results are disputed and are in tribunals. Both petitioners and respondents suffered in the hands of an incompetent INEC.

“As we await rulings from the courts, massive reforms of the electoral framework ought to begin but this means that the INEC chairman will have to leave office by resignation or removal, otherwise the reform task will be impeded.

“I add very quickly that the suggested reforms have nothing to do with the merits of election results at all. Both winners and losers of the elections were victims of the failure of INEC. Confidence in Nigeria’s democracy will be enhanced by a deep cleansing of INEC.”

The election conducted by the present INEC had been described by both local and foreign observers as the worst ever held in the country.

Then President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Yakubu as INEC chair in November 2015 to succeed Attahiru Jega, who supervised the 2015 general elections.