….. Says Commission Bound By Court Order
The legal team of the Peoples Democratic Party and its standard bearer in the controversial February 25, Presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have requested the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to immediately comply with the order of court made on March 3.
In a letter 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’, dated Thursday March 9, the lead counsel, Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN, recalled that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja and presided over by Justice Shagbaor Ikyegh, had granted orders on March 3, 2023 in favour of his clients, PDP and Abubakar.
The court had in that ruling, expressly directed INEC to allow and grant access to PDP, Atiku 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.
According to the lead counsel, the enrolled court order was duly and promptly served on the Commission on the same March 3, 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 March 6, 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.
Gadzama described as disturbing, the fact that despite service of the court order on the Commission since March 3, INEC 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.
“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 added.
While demanding that the Commission immediately comply with the subsisting orders of court, the counsel 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.
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