….Legal Representatives State Hurdles
As political parties prepared for legal battle over the February 25 presidential election, the legal team of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday met to fashion ways of inspecting election materials.
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Report of administrative meeting of the legal representatives held at INEC headquarters made available to Daily Independent, revealed how the legal team met to carry out their work.
Speaking on behalf of the commission, according to the report of the meeting, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, who represent INEC welcomed everyone to the meeting.
He informed everyone that INEC currently has forms Ec8d (summary of results) of each state and FCT, Ec8da (national summary) and Ec8a.
He further stated that the BVAS and backend report of over 11,000 pages are being finalized, adding that the result sheets and ballot papers are in the various states not at the Headquarters.
Inuwa suggested that a timeline for visitation for all parties should be made for ease and the persons appointed to inspect should be limited.
He concluded by stating that CTCs and photocopies of the document will be made available.
Responding, Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN, who represents Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and PDP, said that commencing inspection today is a matter of urgency given the timeline.
He said that a letter to INEC has been written and served stating the documents needed and “we are available on a daily basis to conduct the inspection.”
Additionally, he pointed out that representatives of PDP in various states have gone to the INEC offices for inspection but they were denied access due to the fact that the headquarters has not given the go ahead.
He further stated that PDP in addition to the documents already requested will need the report of the offline and online logs and server from 25th Feb and 1st March 2023 and the phone numbers used on each BVAS.
The representative of APC, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, said that all parties should henceforth inspect the documents together in the spirit of transparency and a joint committee of all parties should be made to come up with a schedule for the inspection.
Labour Party representative, Livy Uzochukwu, SAN, said that LP and PDP petitioned while APC is responding, hence the timelines are different and Petitioners should be treated with priority.
He pointed out that they started inspection yesterday and they want to continue today from where they stopped, adding that everyone’s case is different as such “we must likely are not looking for the same things.
He concluded by stating that it would be a national calamity if a petition is not filed because of lack of documents.
Also speaking in the same vein, Gadzama stated that LP and PDP have a lot in common “and we have more challenges than APC.”
He said that by the order of the Court, INEC is to provide the documents requested for inspection, adding that limiting the number of people allowed to inspect is not realistic because of the burdened placed on the petitioners.
He demanded that a message be sent to the INEC in various states to allow inspection.
At the conclusion of the meeting, it was resolved that PDP and APC can commence inspection immediately while LP having started inspection will continue from where they left off.
