Peter Obi, Labour Party clash with INEC over documents at Tribunal

Peter Obi and the Labour Party clashed on Wednesday with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its refusal to obey a court order to furnish them with more documents for their case.

At the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), the lead counsel to Mr Obi and LP, Mr Livy Uzoukwu, prayed the court to intervene as he had subpoenaed the office of the INEC chairman to produce some documents which they sought to tender as evidence to the court.

This was disclosed after the party had tendered IREV reports certified and downloaded by the first respondent INEC, in seven states which include Benue, Niger, Edo, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Gombe and Kaduna.

Also BVAS report and certificate of compliance for 28 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as evidence which were all opposed by President Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress and INEC.

However, counsel to INEC, Mr Kemi Pinheiro, informed the court of Uzoukwu continuous habit to look for someone to pin when they want to seek for adjournment and that his claims were merely an excuse to adjourn proceedings, having exhausted the documents they wanted to tender for the day.

Pinheiro said that the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had no reason to hold back the subpoenas and it was unfair and uncharitable for the LP to accuse INEC of refusal to be served subpoena. He informed Labour that if they wanted adjournment, INEC was not opposed to that but that they should not use INEC as a weeping ball.

Uzoukwu revealed that INEC’s lead counsel AB Mahmoud has promised to intervene and was shocked by Mr Pinheiro’s statements as the court’s belief was that he could not serve because they refused service.

Justice Haruna Simon Tsammni, however, brought order to the court and adjourned the proceedings for continuation until Thursday, June 15.