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…As LP requests election materials for inspection, petition
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, vowed on Monday to make available all necessary electoral materials and documents to the labour Party (LP), for inspection stating that the Commission has nothing to hide.
Yakubu stated this when the LP officials and legal team visited INEC headquarters requesting the electoral documents for the 25 presidential elections to enable them to file a petition.
The INEC chairman disclosed that a meeting had been scheduled with all the resident electoral commissioners to discuss providing the documents and materials to LP as well as other parties requesting it.
He said: “We received a letter from san on behalf of the Labour Party. The letter is dated March 6, in the letter we were served notice that the team will be here on the seventh at nine in the morning to inspect the materials but most specifically, the letter requested us to get in touch with our resident electoral commissioners across the 37 states of the Federation to make the documents and information available for the prosecution of their petition.
“A meeting has been scheduled with all the resident electoral commissioners is going to be a virtual meeting at 3 pm today, where we will discuss among other issues, this matter of providing CTCs not only to the Labour Party but to all other litigants as well.
“There are two categories of documents those that are in possession of the headquarters of INEC will easily make these documents available to you. Specifically the EC8Ds from the states and the ECD A, which is the collation at the national collection centre by the commission itself.
“The EC8E, the declaration, so many a total of I think 39 documents, this we can easily certify and give you almost immediately.
“As for other documents that we are asking for they are at the state level, so we need to work out the schedule so that we know when your team is going to which state and On which date so that we can easily facilitate not just a certification of documents, but also the inspection that you requested for each of these documents.
“The other one is accreditation data from the back end. This will also be made available to you. Remember that the accreditation data covers over 176,000 polling units.
“We have to print them physically certify them, and give them to you, so the tall and short of what I’m saying is that you will get this document speedily. They will also make arrangements and notify our resident electoral Commissioner of your intended visit so that these documents will be made available to you, those that are at the level, including access to the inspection of any category of materials.
“So I crave your indulgence to suggest that let your team interface with the legal team of the commission immediately. So you work these things out and then we make all the documents available to you.
“But please be assured the lead counsel that INEC has nothing to hide. Whatever you’re asking for will be made available to you.
LP Head, legal counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu SAN, who led the party’s team of lawyers said it would be a national calamity if INEC failed to make available the documents.
He lamented that INEC had refused to release the materials and documents used for the February elections despite a letter written to the commission and an order from the Appeal court asking it to do so.
According to Uzoukwu, “We are here because we have not received any electoral documents from INEC that will enable us to file a petition on behalf of our client and as you all know, an election petition is time sensitive. We have 21 days to file a petition on behalf of our client. Out of that 21 days, we probably have about 10 days to go. And up till now, we have not received any documents. We have written to INEC requesting the documents. Apart from that, the Court of Appeal, made on the 3rd of March ordered INEC to release those documents to us but we have not received any. Hence we requested a meeting with the chairman of INEC and he graciously granted us that audience within short notice. And he has given us concrete assurances on record, that all documents we require will be made available from today.
He expressed confidence that the commission will keep to its word as the INEC Chairman had promised.
Asked what would happen if INEC failed in its promise to provide the documents, he said: “That will be a National calamity. Not making the documents available will create the impression that INEC is deliberately frustrating us to make sure that we cannot prosecute this petition.”
