On Thursday, the Labor Party (LP) charged Enugu State REC Chukwuemeka Chukwu with defying a legitimate ruling from the governorship election tribunal.
During Thursday’s Tribunal hearing, LP’s main counsel Valerie Azinge, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, made the complaint on the company’s behalf.
Party and candidate Barr Chijioke Edeoga are contesting Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate Barr Peter Mbah’s election in court.
The Governorship Election BVAS Machines were ordered to be made available to the LP by the Tribunal.
However, according to Azinge’s testimony before the Tribunal, the REC disobeyed the court order and made it impossible for the party to conduct the inspection of the BVAS machines.
The Tribunal, presided over by Justice K. M. Akano, issued a brief ruling in which it urged the petitioners to exercise their discretion and carry out the necessary actions.
Azinge was questioned by reporters what she would do with her discretion following the Tribunal’s session.
To which she said, “you will definitely know my answer in a few days’ time.”
Barr Ifeanyi Ogenyi, another member of Edeoga’s legal team, added that the INEC has disregarded the Tribunal’s ruling.
His words: “and we served the order on the 30th of March.”
He added that an unsuccessful letter had been sent to INEC’s national chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
They stopped letting us in after that. We took it to court because when we went back there yesterday with the REC and PDP members, we were told we couldn’t even touch the BVAS, only observe it.
We tried to convey to them that even INEC’s own counsel, Hyacinth Okoli, agreed that our forensic expert should examine the evidence, but they wouldn’t listen.
The exact same thing happened when we returned today. We can’t touch the BVAS because the same PDP members showed up.
According to Ogenyi, the Tribunal has also issued a subpoena requiring the REC to produce the BVAS in court.
Their attorney was the one who delivered the subpoena. We anticipate that the REC will comply with the Tribunal’s subpoena and appear for testimony. He said that because INEC is a government agency, it must comply with court orders.
You may remember that Edeoga addressed a petition to INEC’s national chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, complaining that the REC had ignored the Tribunal’s order to provide him with access to crucial electoral documents.
The letter, dated June 26, 2023, and received by INEC on July 3, 2023, urged the electoral umpire to provide them access to the machines ahead of the scheduled hearing of the petition on July 7, 2023.
Edeoga claims that on July 6, 2023, after REC allegedly refused to provide the requested access, a new letter was sent to the INEC Chairman again stressing the importance of granting access to the requested information.
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