Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has chided the counsel of the Labour party (LP), Livy Uzoukwu, for not following the laid-out procedures in requesting documents from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Gatekeepers News reports that Uzoukwu had accused INEC of deliberately withholding documents that could help the Labour Party’s case as it contests the results of the February 25 presidential election.
Uzoukwu said, “We met with the INEC chairman and he assured us that all the documents will be made available.”
The Electoral Commission, represented by it’s Director on Certification and Complaints, Morounkeji Olufunmilayo objected to LP’s claims, stating that the subpeona to produce the documents was only received on Monday.
The court cautioned that Uzoukwu’s continuous reference to his meeting with INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, could not be relied upon as a subsisting law which the court could regard as a legal compelling force.
The PEPC further highlighted that there is an existing legal process of applying for documents with clearly spelt punishment for refusing or obstructing the process, however, LP’s counsels have not thoroughly followed the process but has continued to wrongly relied on the assurances made in person by Yakubu.
The documents in question include the state collation sheets of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
