Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi has revealed that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has refused their party to inspect election materials used on February 25th President and National Assembly elections.
Obi, who said he will be heading to court today (Wednesday) with his legal team to challenge INEC over their refusal to allow his party to inspect the election materials noted that he would have gone to campaign for the Labour Party governorship candidates across the country ahead of the Saturday, March 11 governorship election.
He, however charged his supporters (Obidients) to vote for Labour Party governorship candidates across the country, but they should endeavor to vote for candidates with Capacity, Character and Compassion.
“I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today. Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.
“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.
“As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few.
“It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion. I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible! -PO
AbaCityBlog recalled that Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on March 3rd ordered INEC to allow Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of PDP access to all the sensitive materials the Commission deployed for the conduct of the presidential election that held on February 25.
A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the orders after it heard two separate ex-parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.
Cited as Respondents in the matter were INEC, the acclaimed winner of the presidential election, Bola Tinubu, as well as his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Both applications were predicated on Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
While Obi, in his application that was moved by his team of lawyers led by Mr Alex Ejesieme, SAN, sought six principal reliefs, on the other hand, Atiku’s lawyer, Mr Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents in its custody that were used for the presidential election.
They maintained that the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential contest that was declared in favour of the candidate of the APC, Tinubu.
