2nd June, 2023
By Wandoo Sombo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it opposed tendering of some documents it certified by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP,) Mr Peter Obi and his party against the outcome of 2023 presidential poll at the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC on Thursday.
Obi and LP had sought to tender the documents which were obtained from INEC as exhibits to establish their petition against the conduct of the Feb. 25 Presidential Election.
But INEC had opposed the tendering of the documents even though they were endorsed by it.
Also, at Friday’s proceedings, INEC also objected to all the certified true copies of the Form EC8A the petitioners sought to tender from local governments across six states.
However, speaking at PEPC on Friday, INEC’s counsel, Mr Kemi Pinhero, SAN, said the electoral body kicked against the tendering of certified true copies of the documents, mainly election result sheets, on the grounds that they were strange to the petition.
Pinhero explained that issues were not joined in the local government areas where the result sheets were sought to be tendered, adding that it was wrong for the petitioners to go beyond the areas where the election was disputed.
According to INEC, the local government areas unlawfully smuggled into proceedings of the court are totally strange to the petition and cannot stand in the face of the law.
The Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, however, held that it was wrong for INEC’S lawyer to attempt to give reasons for his objection now when all parties had agreed during the pre-hearing stage to give reasons at the address stage.
The counsel, however, said that he was compelled to offer some explanation following the bashing the commission received in the media that it was objecting to the admittance of its own documents in court.
Meanwhile, the court has admitted as exhibits, Forms EC8A from 21 local government areas of Adamawa, Lagos state, eight local government areas of Bayelsa and parts of Rivers and Niger as tendered by the petitioners.
(NAN)