Yakubu said: “INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the HQ 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.”
By Emma Ogbuehi
Following its dissatisfaction with the outcome of the just concluded presidential election, the legal team of the Labour Party stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja on Monday to inspect materials.
Channels TV reported that the team met with very senior officials of the commission.
The meeting with INEC officials is aimed at commencing the process of inspection of electoral materials used for the February 25 presidential election.
The team, with about 60 lawyers, was led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu. They are expected to brief journalists after the meeting.
Despite the ruling by the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja that political parties challenging the presidential election result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should have access to the materials used in conducting the polls, the umpire said at the weekend that it will not allow any political party have access to its data base containing biometric information of all registered voters.
INEC National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Barrister Festus Okoye, stated this while speaking on Channels TV‘s politics today on Sunday.
The Labour Party, on Thursday, knocked INEC, saying the electoral umpire deliberately came up with its idea of reconfiguring the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines after its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine the election materials.
This was as the party faulted the commission’s claim of backing up the data retrieved from the BVAS without the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.
“On the issue of a political party saying they want to come and look at our cloud, IReV or into the brain of the BIVAS, the commission will not allow that to happen.
“Every political party that deploys polling agents has a copy of the polling units level results and if a political party now says they want to come into the commission to look at the database containing biometric information of all registered voters, we won’t allow that to happen because the laws do not allow that.
“Look, the commission is the regulator of political parties and the political parties cannot, just because of so many things taking place, come around and want to regulate the commission. The commission will now allow that to happen,” Okoye said.
But on Monday, INEC assured the Labour Party’s legal team that it will provide all the documents the party has requested for its ongoing suit against the commission and the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
The chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance when Labour Party’s legal head, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, led a 60-man legal team to a meeting with representatives of INEC in Abuja on Monday to discuss modalities for obtaining the documents.
Saying the commission has nothing to hide, Yakubu further assured that Resident Electoral Commissioners at the state level would also make available necessary documents to the party speedily.
He said, “INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the HQ 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.”