THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised to provide all the materials requested by the Labour Party (LP).
The Commission made the promise in a post on its official Twitter handle on Monday, March 13.
INEC Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu, who met with the LP legal team, assured them during the meeting that the Commission has nothing to hide.
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“INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the HQ will be given immediately. We are meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners today, and we will discuss how other documents at the state level could also be made available to you speedily,” Yakubu said.
The Labour Party’s legal team was at the INEC headquarters to discuss modalities for obtaining the documents after getting a court judgment in that regard.
THE party had earlier announced plans to mobilise supporters and party members for a nationwide protest against INEC.
The LP said it would protest if the electoral commission refused to comply with the court order that grants it access to the materials used for the conduct of the presidential election.
The party disclosed this in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Dr Yunusa Tanko, on Saturday, March 11.
Tanko accused the electoral body of impunity for refusing to obey the order of made by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on March 3, directing it to grant the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, leave to apply and receive certified true copies of materials used in the presidential election.
“It should be noted that in a democracy like ours, the rule of law must triumph not only in our legal system but also in our body polity,” Tanko said
He said the action of INEC constitutes an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply with the court’s order.
INEC declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.
Yakubu announced the result on March 1.
According to the result released by INEC, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
The PDP and LP candidates have rejected the outcome of the election and vowed to challenge it in court.
A reporter with the ICIR
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