The chairman of the Independent National Election Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the commission lacked the power to force any electoral candidate to attend a debate.
Yakubu who made this known during the quarterly consultative meeting with media executives in Abuja said that debates are democratic rights and cannot be forced on any candidate and that there were, however, “unspoken consequences” for those who failed to attend.
He stated that even in most advanced countries, nobody can be compelled to do anything in a democracy.
