The ongoing legal fire works at the 2023 Presidential Election Petition Tribunal took a twist on Monday as the Presidential candidate of the Labour and Former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi and his Party alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to provide the documents they demanded for the prosecution of their case.
Obi and the LP are petitioners in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 challenging the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Respondents are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The LP and Obi told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that due to INEC’s failure to provide the documents demanded they would be unable to go on with their case.
Counsel to LP, Jubrin Okutepa, told the court that all the documents his client asked for from INEC were not provided.
“We are bringing this to your notice for your intervention because we have done everything humanly possible.
“This afternoon, INEC released a few IreV reports from Lagos and Gombe.
“These documents were certified since May 29. We have severally written letters detailing the documents we needed in the proof of our petition.
“We have paid for most of these documents,” he said
Okutepa also informed the court that it appears that INEC was deliberately delaying proceedings.
Council for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud told the court that he received a letter dated May 15 from the petitioners and has not received any other letter after that.
“All the documents that the subpoenaed witnesses are tendering were provided by INEC. We never denied the petitioners any document.
I am a senior counsel and know the importance of this matter. They should stop this lamentation,” he said.
Counsel to Tinubu and Shettima, Wole Olanipakun, also promised to ensure that a meeting between senior counsels holds to address the issues raised.
The court urged them to come to a better understanding so that the proceeding could go on smoothly.
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