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.