The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated the reason for denying Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, access to some electoral documents they sought.
Levy Uzoukwu, lead counsel to the former Anambra governor and the opposition party had told the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) on Wednesday that the electoral body denied them access to some electoral materials which will aid them in court.
Mr Uzokwu said INEC, which they wrote to on several occasions alongside court orders made on the 3rd and 5th days of March, “stubbornly refused to produce 70 percent of the electoral documents that were requested” in Rivers and Sokoto states.
He said the commission was requesting the sum of N1.5 million to provide access to that of Sokoto State alone.
“A typical example is that of Rivers state, where the resident electoral commissioner boldly told us they do not have any form EC8A to give us,” the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said.
INEC denies
Responding, counsel to the electoral umpire, Abubakar Mahmoud, explained that the opposition were denied access to the documents because they refused to pay the stipulated fee for what they were requesting.
Mr Mahmoud also said the legal team of the LP declined attending a meeting called to streamline issues around the documents to be presented in court.
“We agreed to meet on Monday and Tuesday (15 and 16 May). But on Monday, May 15, I received a call that the Labour Party legal team had not turned up at the venue for the inspection of the documents,” Mahmoud told the court.
He said the opposition legal team rejected some electoral materials from Rivers State given to them but “insisted on collecting all the documents that were required”.
“The commission has not refused to produce any document,” Mahmoud added.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi and Wole Olanipekun who represented the President-Elect Bola Tinubu, aligned with the position of INEC lawyer.
After listening to all parties in the petition, the court adjourned proceedings until May 19.
The court asked lawyers in the suit to respond to all pending applications before the next adjourned date.
The court also reminded parties that the pre-hearing session is to last 14 days from the day of its commencement.
The court began its pre-hearing session on May 8.
