Former Senate Minority Leader,
Senator Godswill Akpabio representing Akwa Ibom Northwest senatorial district
has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the state
of disobeying court order to allow him access to election materials.
The Election Petition Tribunal,
headed by its Chairman, Justice W.O Akanbi had on April 2 granted Senator
Akpabio, the petitioner and applicant and his agents, including forensic
experts, access to inspect and copy all electoral materials used in the senatorial
election.
Counsel to Senator Akpabio,
Patrick Umoh disclosed that the electoral umpire in the state has refused to
obey the order of the court to allow them inspect and copy the materials for
litigation purposes.
Umoh told the Nation that it was
obvious that the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC, Mike
Igini was colluding with the PDP-led government in the state to frustrate the
efforts of the legal team.
“We learnt that on the
instruction of Igini, Akwa Ibom INEC has consistently flouted the order and has
refused the agents of Senator
“Akpabio and forensic experts
access to the election material. INEC has been engaging in a hide-and-seek
game.
“We also wish to inform you that
we had earlier reported for the said inspection on Thursday, the 11thday of
April, 2019, Friday, 12thApril, 2019 and Monday, 15thApril, 2019 but our
efforts to have access to the materials and inspect same did not yield any
positive result,” Umoh said.
“INEC has colluded with PDP and
advised the party to file a motion on April 16th which they cited as the reason
they couldn’t allow the inspection of the materials as ordered by the court.
“Analysts believe the
hide-and-seek by INEC was to give the PDP enough time to file the motion,” he
maintained.
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