The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accused the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and the party of being unwilling to pay the required fees for the certification of the election documents they requested for to prosecute their petition.
INEC said their unwillingness to pay the required fees accounts for the delay in the realise of the remaining documents in relation to Sokoto and Rivers states.
INEC’s lead lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) at the resumed hearing of the petition by Obi and LP that his client was willing and ready to release the requested documents, once the stipulated fees were paid.
Mahmoud referred to a letter written to him by petitioners’ lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) that his clients were not ready to pay the N1.5million requested for the certification of the document in relation to Sokoto State.
He also accused the Labour party team of walking out of a meeting scheduled by parties to sort out documents to be tendered as exhibits in the case.
Earlier, Uzoukwu told the court that INEC was frustrating his clients’ access to the election documents required as exhibits to prosecute their case.
He said he wrote five letters, visited INEC headquarters and even met with INEC Chairman on the issue, to no avail. He prayed the court to compel INEC tomake the documents, including Form EC8A available to the petitioners.
He denied that the petitioners’ team walked out of the meeting as claimed by Mahmoud.
Lawyers to the President-elect and Vice President-elect, Woke Olanipekun (SAN) and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) noted that from Mahmoud’s account, it was obvious that the delay in the release of the remaining documents was because of the petitioners’s failure to pay the required fees.
The court has adjourned further pre-hearing session in the petition till Friday.
