Obi explains to tribunal how INEC prevented him from accessing materials in Rivers, Sokoto, other places

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) candidate for president, informed the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declined to provide 70% of the electoral documents he requested to help the petition’s prosecution.

The conduct and results of the poll are being contested by Obi, who finished third in the presidential election on February 25.

During yesterday’s pre-hearing session, Obi insisted that Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, had the election rigged in his favor.

His lead attorney, Dr. Livy Uzougwu, specifically informed the five-member Justice Haruna Tsammani tribunal that he was unable to access the election-related documents in the states of Rivers and Sokoto.

He bemoaned the electoral body’s N1.5 million demand for Sokoto State’s election materials in order to process them.

In his testimony before the tribunal, Uzougwu stated that “in the case of Rivers State, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) boldly told us they do not have any form EC8 to give us.”

He drew the court’s attention to two earlier decisions ordering INEC to allow LP access for the inspection of electoral records like the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used to conduct the election.

In one of these decisions, the Court ordered the electoral body to provide certified true copies of the result sheets and other data obtained from the BVAS machines so that they could be presented to support the petitioner’s case on March 3 and March 8.

Uzoukwu also made reference to five different letters sent to Yakubu Mahmood, the chairman of INEC, requesting permission to inspect and obtain pertinent electoral records in order to support the petitioner’s court case.
Abubakar Mahmoud, the INEC’s lawyer, refuted the accusations and asserted that his client was prepared to work with all parties involved in the petitions and the court.

He testified before the court that Obi’s legal counsel declined to go to a meeting called to resolve complications with regard to documents to be tendered before the court.

“We decided to meet on May 15 and May 16, respectively. However, on Monday, May 15, I received a call informing me that the Labour Party legal team had not arrived at the location where the documents were to be inspected, Mahmoud said.

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He clarified that although LP had received some electoral paperwork in Rivers, he insisted on obtaining all necessary paperwork.

Mahmoud stated, “The commission has not refused to produce any documents.

However, Obi’s attorney, Uzougwu, retorted that his team had not left any meetings.

Lateef Fagbemi, the lead attorney for the APC, concurred with INEC’s stance on election document access.

“All public documents coming from INEC that have been properly certified won’t be challenged, but other documents may be, with justifications provided and defenses put forth at the end of the day before judgment. We are prepared and eager to work with the court, he reaffirmed.

Wole Olanipekun, the lead attorney for Tinubu, stated that he had no trouble getting documents from the electoral umpire.

Olanipekun stated, “We will hold off on objecting to documents until the trial is over.

After hearing from all parties, the court decided to postpone the case until May 19.