By Uche Amunike
The Labour Party has threatened that it would ensure that its members will occupy Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices nationwide for allegedly frustrating the petition made by the party against the outcome of the general elections held, February 25.
Speaking, Saturday, through a statement issued by spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign Council of the Labour Party, Dr Yunusa Tanko, he stated that INEC went against the orders of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, even after they were directed to allow the party, as well as its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, access to the certified true copies of materials used in the conduct of the election.
Hear him: ‘It will be recalled that the aforesaid order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on March 3, 2023, despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.’
‘Not minding the service of the said order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated March 6, 2023, and delivered same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid order of such magnitude till now’, Tanko stated.
Recall that Presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had earlier approached the Presidential Election Court to seek permission to inspect all election materials used during the poll.
On March 3, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja granted the request of the duo to go ahead with the inspection of the materials used during the polls.
Recall also that the two candidates refused to concede defeat as Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared winner. They also both turned down the reconciliation bid he made by asking them to support him in the task of building Nigeria, during his acceptance speech, as they insisted that election results were allegedly rigged.
Tanko further stated: ‘The action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply with the order of court.’
‘As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials.’
‘We, therefore, call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, and which is a well-calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.’
The Labour Party Spokesperson reiterated that they will ensure to call on all their supporters to assemble themselves from all over the country to proceed on a non-violent protest, which is permitted by law, to occupy INEC offices nationwide, to show their dissatisfaction over the outcome of the general election.
