Imo Gov Poll: INEC denying us materials to prove our case, PDP tells tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, on Monday, accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of denying it access to materials that were used for the conduct of the governorship election that held in Imo State on November 11, 2023.

The PDP and its candidate told the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja that they needed the materials to prove that governor Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC, did not secure the majority of valid votes that were cast at the election.

At the resumed proceeding in the matter on Monday, the petitioners, through their team of lawyers led by Mr. Johnson Usman, SAN, alleged that the electoral body flouted an order of the tribunal that directed it to furnish them with some of the sensitive materials that were used in the conduct of the poll, including the voters register.

Usman, SAN, told the Justice O. Akintan-Osadebay-led three-member tribunal that INEC declined to comply with the order after it collected the sum of N5million from the petitioners as processing fee, since January 26.

According to him, aside from the processing fee, the petitioners equally paid another N4m to a business centre for the photocopying of the voters register.

“On February 7, 2024, INEC said we should pay N50, 000 for the CTC which we did and it issued us a receipt,” Usman added.

He lamented that out of the 27 Local Government Areas of the state, INEC only provided the Certtified True Copies (CTC), of the voters register from seven LGAs.

However, responding to the allegation, INEC told the tribunal that the petitioners failed to meet the condition precedent stipulated in section 253(2) of the Evidence Act and Order 20 rule 10 of the Federal High Court rules.

INEC’s lawyer, Mr. A.M Aliyu, SAN, told the tribunal that the Commission had certified the voters register in seven out of the 27 LGAs but the petitioners refused to pick them at its office in Owerri.

Likewise, a principal legal officer of the Commission, Nwankwo Onyinyechi, who appeared in honour of a subpoena issued on INEC, told the tribunal that it was the petitioners that instructed the business centre to stop the photocopying of the voters register for onward certification by the commission.

“We received a subpoena and the petitioners wrote a letter for the certitied true copy of the voters register and other documents.

“After that, we have an understanding with them (petitioners) that they will liase with a business centre that will photo copy the voters register, which they did.

“Following that understanding, they produced photocopy for seven LGA which the commission has certified.

“However, the petitioners asked the business centre to stop production until further notice.

“The voters register from the seven LGAs have been certified but the petitioners have not come to pick them up. They are there at our office in Owerri

“We wrote a letter to the petitioners to come, but they have not come over,” Onyinyechi told the tribunal.

In addition, counsel to INEC, Aliyu, SAN, informed the tribunal that the petitioners have refused to comply with the provision of the law for the transmission of the documents as contained in the subpoena issued by the tribunal.

Meanwhile, the tribunal admitted in evidence, documents representing the entire polling units in the 27 Local Governments Areas of the State, even as it adjourned the matter till Thursday for the petitioners to close their case.

It will be recalled that INEC had declared that governor Uzodinma of the APC polled a total of 540,308 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Senator Anyanwu of the PDP who scored 71,503 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge it.

They are among other things, praying the tribunal to withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to governor Uzodinma as the winner of the election.

The petitioners further persuaded the tribunal to issue a subpoena to compel INEC to produce and tender some of the materials used for the election

Among documents they requested for, included, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, certified copies of screen shots of information contained in the BAVS Machines, INEC’s Forms 40G as well as certified copies of the voters registers.