The legal team of the presidential candidate of the Labour party, Peter Obi, has vowed to take legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission over “deliberate” refusal to allow its client to inspect presidential election materials in line with the orders of the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal had issued an order allowing Obi, the LP as well as the Peoples Democratic Party to inspect materials used for the February 25 presidential election which INEC declared was won by Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress.
INEC, on March 6, filed a motion on notice praying the court to vary the orders to enable the commission to reconfigure accreditation machines used for the election to enable their use for the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections.
The appellate court, in its discretion, allowed INEC to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, but dismissed its application, saying that its earlier orders granting Obi access to electoral materials stands.
INEC, in apparent reaction to the ruling, stated, “we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials. Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court.”
But a member of Obi’s legal team, Alex Ejesieme SAN, told THE WHISTLER in a phone interview on Saturday that the electoral umpire has not granted them access to election materials.
“Well, we have written to them (INEC),we have done everything possible and they have refused to allow us to inspect. So, we are going to review our positions this weekend and by Monday, we will know the next thing to do,” the lawyer said.
