Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to comply with the March 3 order of the Court of Appeal.
Atiku and his party, the PDP, have specifically demanded that INEC in line with the order of the court grant them Immediate access to electoral materials used in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
A three member panel of the appellate court had on March 3, during a ruling in an exparte application filed by Atiku and PDP directed the electoral umpire to permit the applicants to inspect, scan, make photocopies amongst others of materials used for the February 25 presidential polls.
The order was to enable Atiku and PDP gather evidence in which they intend to present at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, that would handle grievances of contestants against the outcome of the presidential election.
Five days after the order was issued, Atiku and PDP have written to the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu on the need to obey the order of the appellate court.
The letter dated March 9, is titled, ‘Demand for Immediate Compliance with Court Order Granted On March 3, 2023 For Access, Inspection and Examination/Analysis of Electoral Materials Used for 2023 Presidential Election.
Counsel of Atiku and PDP, Joe-Kyari Gadzama, recalled that the appellate court in its March 3 ruling delivered by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, had expressly directed INEC to allow and grant access to the applicants and their representatives to inspect, scan, make copies, forensically audit and obtain Certified True Copies (CTC) of all electoral materials which were used in the conduct of the Presidential Election.
“The Court in Order No. 6, specifically allowed our clients to carry out forensic examination/analysis of the BVAS machines/devices and all information stored in the server/IREV/backend/clouds, amongst others”, Gadzama stated.
The senior lawyer claimed that the enrolled court order was duly and promptly served on the Commission on the same 3 March by the court bailiff accompanied by his clients’ representatives.
“We have attached the acknowledged copy of the court order for ease of reference. It is our clients’ brief that upon service of the order, they immediately requested for a date to follow up and they were asked to return on March 6.
“On 6 March, our clients’ representatives led by Adedamola Fanokun, Esq (office of the PDP National Legal Adviser) returned to the Commission ready to commence inspection, examination and obtaining of the electoral materials as ordered by the court but they were informed at the Commission’s legal registry that there was no instruction yet from the Commission on the court order.
“Our clients further requested audience with the Commission’s Director of Litigation to accelerate the process but they were not allowed as they were told by the Registry staff that the Director was in a meeting. Sadly, these and other efforts by our clients have yielded no result”, Gadzama stated.
He described as disturbing, the fact that despite service of the court order on the Commission since March 3, the Commission was yet to allow PDP and its representatives to access, inspect and/or obtain the needed electoral materials as ordered by the court despite repeated visits to the Commission and follow-up in respect thereof.
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No doubt, the Commission is bound by the orders of the court and cannot choose if, when and/or how to comply with same.
“The unqualified obligation of the Commission, which of course includes INEC officials, is to unhesitatingly comply and give effect to the subsisting order of Court; there is no discretion to exercise here.
The senior lawyer while demanding that INEC immediately comply with the subsisting orders of court, also demand daily access to all polling documents, voters register, ballot papers and electoral forms/materials for purposes of scanning, forensic audit, expert examination and inspection; daily access to the BVAS machines/devices and server/IREV/backend/clouds for purposes of forensic examination and analysis as well as CTCs of all BVAS accreditation reports, forms EC40A, EC8A, EC8AVP, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and all other electoral forms/materials on a state by state basis.
Credit: This Day