Presidential election: Again, LP, INEC lawyers clash over poll materials

The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Monday, again accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of frustrating its petition challenging the result of the February 25 presidential election.

Their lawyer, Jubrin Okutepa (SAN),  complained to the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, that: “All the documents we have asked for, INEC has refused to give us.

“We are bringing this to your notice for your intervention because we have done everything humanly possible.

“These documents were certified since May 29. We have severally written letters detailing the documents we needed in the proof of our petition.”

Okutepa claimed that despite that his clients had since paid the necessary fees demanded by INEC for the documents, the electoral umpire had refused to make them available.

But INEC’s lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud (SAN), insisted that: “We never denied the petitioners of any document.”

“All the documents that the subpoenaed witnesses are tendering are from INEC,” Mahmoud said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the proceedings, the LP and Obi fielded their seventh witness

The subpoenaed witness, Loretta Ogah,  who was led in evidence by another member of the petitioners’ team, Patrick Ikweato (SAN), introduced herself to the court as a cloud engineer and architect with Amazon Web Services Incorporated.

The court admitted Ogah’s employment letter and resume as exhibits.

The respondents in the petition all informed the court that they were just being served the witness deposition and would need to study the document in preparation for cross-examination.

Consequently, the five-man panel, led by Justice Tsammani, adjourned to Tuesday for the cross-examination of the witness and further hearing of the petition.

 

Meanwhile, the court has fixed June 21 for the Allied Peoples Movement to open its case challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential poll, in which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared winner.

The APM’s petition case had suffered a lull due to a recent Supreme Court judgment, which Tinubu’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), said he believed had already addressed the issues raised by the APM in its petition. Punch