Peter Obi Refused To Pay Required Fees To Collect Documents They Need As Exhibits, INEC
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has blamed the delay in the release of some documents in relation to the presidential election in Sokoto and Rivers states on the Labour Party and its candidate in the election, Peter Obi.
INEC accused LP and Obi of refusing to pay the required fees.
Livy Uzoukwu, counsel for the petitioners (LP and Obi) had told the court that INEC was denying his clients access to the election documents.
The lawyer said the documents were required as exhibits to prosecute their case.
According to Uzoukwu, despite writing five letters and visiting the INEC headquarters in Abuja, the electoral body still failed to release the documents.
The lawyer said he also met with the chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to resolve the issue but that also failed.
He urged the court to compel INEC to make the documents, including Form EC8A available to the petitioners.
However, INEC accused Obi and his party of being unwilling to pay the required fees for the certification of the election documents they had requested.
He said their unwillingness to pay the required fees for the delay.
Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), INEC’s lead lawyer, 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 the petitioners’ lawyer, Uzoukwu that his clients were not ready to pay the N1.5 million requested for the certification of the document in relation to Sokoto State. He 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.
The lawyers representing 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’ failure to pay the required fees.
The court has adjourned further pre-hearing sessions in the petition till Friday.
