We Have 10 Days Left To File Petitions At Tribunal — Labour Party

The Labour Party (LP) said it has 10 days left to file election petitions at the tribunal against the declaration of the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking shortly after meeting with the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, alongside other members of the LP legal team, Dr Livy Uzoukwu said that the team came to INEC because they had not received any electoral stocks for inspection on behalf of their clients, and especially that the election petition is time sensitive.

“We have 21 days to file a petition on behalf of our clients. Out of those 21days we probably have about 10 days to go and up till now we have not received any documents. We have written to INEC requesting for the document apart from that.

“The Court of Appeal made an order on March 3, to INEC to release those documents to us but we haven’t received any hence we requested a meeting with the chairman of the commission.

Following an invitation for a noon meeting INEC, yesterday, the Labour Party (LP) had suspended its plan for a nationwide protest over the refusal of the electoral body to inspect materials used for the February 25, 2023 presidential polls.

The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi had rejected the outcome of the poll won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed over alleged manipulations by the electoral umpire.

Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.

At the meeting held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission had nothing to hide and assured the Labour Party’s legal team of free access to all the documents it requested for to prosecute its case before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.

During the meeting, Dr Livy Uzoukwu led a team of 60 lawyers for Peter Obi to discuss the modalities for obtaining the documents.

Yakubu said, “INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the headquarters will be given immediately. We are meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners today and we will discuss how other documents at the state level could also be made available to you speedily,” Prof. Yakubu told the team.

Recall that the Court of Appeal serving as the Election Petitions Tribunal had last week granted leave to the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC in the February 25 elections.

INEC, however, asked the court to vary the order, saying the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) needed to be reprogrammed ahead of the Governorship and State Assembly polls.

“We received a letter from Uzoukwu (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 RECs and is going to be a virtual meeting at 3 pm, today, which we will discuss among other issues, this matter of providing CTCs not only to the Labour Party, but to all other litigants as well.

“I want to assure you that the commission will not hide any document from anybody and will make available any document that they have requested,” Yakubu said.

According to him, there are two categories of documents, and are in possession of the headquarters of INEC. These documents would be made available to them.

“Specifically, the EC8Ds from the states and the ECD A, which is the coalition at the national collection centre by the commission itself. The EC8E, the declaration, so many, a total of, I think 39 documents, that 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 certification of documents, but also the inspection that you requested for each of these documents,” Yakubu said.

The INEC boss also said that the other document is accreditation data from the back end and that this will also be made available to them.

He said, “Remember that the accreditation data covers over 176,000 polling units (PUs). We have to print them, physically certify them, and give them to you, so the short and short of what I’m saying is that you will get this document speedily.

“They will also make arrangements and notify our RECs of your intended visit so that these documents will be made available to you those that are at the level, including access to 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. So whatever we need to facilitate as a commission so that you get this document that you require as a matter of urgency, I want to assure you that you will get them as a matter of urgency.”

On his part, Uzoukwu said that the team came to INEC because they have not received any electoral stocks for inspection on behalf of their clients, and especially that the election petition is time sensitive.

“We have 21 days to file a petition on behalf of our clients. Out of those 21days we probably have about 10 days to go and up till now we have not received any documents. We have written to INEC requesting for the document apart from that.

“The Court of Appeal made an order on March 3, to INEC to release those documents to us but we haven’t received any hence we requested a meeting with the chairman of the commission.

He graciously granted that audience within a very short notice, and he has given us assurance, concrete assurance on record that all documents we require will be made available, and if possible, some of them will be made available to us today.

“So we believe that that will happen and we are leaving here rest assured that by the time we leave INEC premises at least, we will leave with some documents, the rest can then come from tomorrow and so on and so forth,” Uzoukwu said.

He said that the team was bothered and that he made that point when they met with the chairman of INEC that not only that their clients are bothered and agitated but also, members of the legal council are bothered as well as members of Labour Party and their supporters who have become restive.