Inspection of Election Materials: INEC Has Given Us Access To Only 2 Out Of The 9 States We Asked For — Labour Party’s Counsel

*Says “INEC Is Still Refusing Us Access To Election Materials”

The Labour party lead Counsel, Livy Uzoukwu has continued to express to the public the unwillingness of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to comply with the dictates of the law and the pronouncement of the law courts.

The lead Counsel had earlier called on the INEC to abide by the instructions of the Court – that instructed the INEC to make available all materials requested by the Labour Party concerning the presidential elections of February 25, 2023. This was as a result of the INEC’s refusal to release the sensitive materials in a timely manner.

According to the legal team of the Labour Party, the Labour Party asked INEC to grant them access to the election materials used by 9 states in the presidential and national assembly elections, but instead of giving them what they asked for, INEC have them access to the election materials of 2 states.

The legal team of the Labour Party stated that although the Labour Party needs to inspect the election materials of all the states in Nigeria, however, the Labour Party considered the limited amount of time and as such, they urged INEC to give them access to 9 states instead of 36 states.

Labour Party’s legal team said that despite the promises that was made by the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who promised that the commission will obey the court order, INEC has not done as it promised.

The legal team of the Labour Party went on to say that they have around 4 days to file their case in court and they cannot do so without inspecting the election materials so as to get the evidence they need to build up their case in court.

There is palpable fear the INEC may not deliver the necessary materials needed by the Lawyers in order to meeting the twenty one [21] day deadline. There is also concern the INEC may be wilfully delaying the release of the materials.

It took the threat of a national strike for the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu to convene a meeting with the team of lawyers from the Labour party. At the meeting the INEC chairman promised to provide the materials and assured the lawyers that the INEC will never deny them access to the matters.