Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has asserted that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, is not only incompetent but also an irresponsible person.
NOP NIGERIA reports that Okonkwo made this remark in the wake of recent developments regarding the derecognition of ADC national leadership.
In a lengthy post on his social media handle, Okonkwo faulted Amupitan for claiming to know the Court of Appeal’s judgment on its leadership from social media.
Okonkwo accused Amupitan of lying about the dates the hostilities in ADC began, stressing that such a claim aims to justify his illegal and irresponsible action in succumbing to the pressure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to deregister ADC.
The post read, “After listening to Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan, the INEC Chairman of Nigeria, on Arise TV, Morning Show, on the 3 March 2026, at about 9:30 am, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that the INEC Chairman is not only the most incompetent INEC Chairman in Nigeria history, but he is an irresponsible dishonest person. First, I was shocked to hear from the incompetent Chairman that he learnt about the judgement of the Court of Appeal from the social media. This is a case that INEC is a party to and represented by a Counsel, yet the head of INEC heard about the judgement in the social media. I wish he had even said main media. What an indescribable level of incompetence! What this means is that what we have is a social media chairman who takes decisions based on social media comments rather than pure legal principles. Little wonder the quality of his decisions are at the same level with some social media miscreants and street urchins whose main aim is to attract traffic to their blog rather than making any sense in their scripts.
“Second, Amupitan said that the hostility in ADC commenced on 29 July 2025 when INEC confirmed David Mark as the Chairman of ADC. What? Is this Amupitan okay? This was the day the NEC of ADC dissolved the NWC of ADC and accepted the NWC under David Mark as its new leadership. The Nafiu Bala Gombe had resigned his membership by 18 May 2025 and was part of the ADC that accepted and welcomed the new executive on 29 July 2026. INEC was present at the NEC meeting and accepted the outcome. INEC was also notified about Nafiu’s resignation, and it accepted it. There was no court action from Nafiu against the new executive.
“The July 29th approval by NEC was when the new executive was born, not 9 September 2026, when INEC entered the names on its portal. David Mark-led executive of ADC was born on 29 July 2025, not on 9 September 2026, when INEC registered it in its portal. The hostility started in September, not 29 July 2025.
”Recall that on 2 September 2026, the Nafiu gang filed an exparte motion, which was rejected by the trial court. By then, ADC was not put on notice because it was exparte. Having rejected this exparte motion, there was no hindrance to any party to do anything. It is only when a party is served in a matter and issues joined that hostilities begin. This occurred after 9 September 2026. Status quo ante bellum, therefore, means that David Mark-led ADC should be preserved until court decides.
“Amupitan, therefore, told a transparent lie when he said that hostilities started from 29 July 2025 when every party, including INEC, was on the same page. The only reason he told this lie is to justify his illegal and irresponsible action in succumbing to the pressure of APC to deregister ADC.
“INEC is an unpire, not a court. Without an express court order, it does not even have the power to give its own interpretation on any matter before the court. There was no order at all directed at INEC by the Court of Appeal. It is ridiculous that INEC will implement its own invented orders, which the court never gave. Maintain status quo was issued to the parties. This has nothing to do with INEC. The incompetent Joash admitted that INEC didn’t go to court. What is its business in interpreting the status quo? What it would have done was to remain neutral and allow any party to seek the interpretation from the court if the party wanted specific orders directed at INEC. Amupitan is in INEC to do a hatchet job. This man should be thrown out immediately. He is a democracy assassin.”
