Abia Tribunal Ordered INEC To Produce Documents

 The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to bring the documents used during the governorship elections to the Tribunal for inspection. The electoral body failed to allow the petitioner, Dr Alex Otti, access to materials used during the April 2015 governorship election in the state.

The tribunal’s order followed a motion by Otti, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), urging the court to compel INEC to bring the materials for inspection.

Otti’s lead counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the Tribunal that, against its previous orders, INEC refused to allow his client access to the electoral materials.

 

The Tribunal also granted the petitioner’s second motion, praying the Tribunal to order that all the motions by the first, second and third respondents be considered at the end of the hearing to avoid time wasting

Speaking with journalists, Olujinmi said that efforts by his client to inspect the electoral materials as ordered by the Tribunal were frustrated by INEC, which is the third respondent.

He said that inspecting the materials would help them to prove their petition challenging the declaration of the first respondent, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as the winner of the election. In his reaction, Chief Chibuike Nwokeukwu, counsel to Ikpeazu, said he doubted how the order could be enforced, considering the volume of the electoral materials used during the polls. Source‬: Daily Trust.