Thousands of supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have stormed the Benin City, Edo State headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest an alleged attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the September 21 election, Asue Ighodalo to tamper with result sheets and other election materials in the Commission’s office ahead of the sitting of the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal.
The protesters were led by the Deputy Governor-elect, Rt. Hon Dennis Idahosa. They blocked the entrance into the INEC office thereby creating heavy gridlock around the area as they cautioned INEC against allowing anybody to tamper with the election documents.
However, Ighodalo the PDP had obtained a court-enrolled order directing the INEC among other things to hand over the comprehensive list of all the electoral materials available in its custody for the inspection of Ighodalo and the PDP and “the taking of the Certified True Copy thereof.”
The order was given in the suit marked EPT/ED/GOV/01M/2024 between Ighodalo Asuerinme and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as applicants and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Okpebholo Monday and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as respondents.
A member of the Applicants’ legal team, Olusegun Jolaowo (SAN) submitted the order to the INEC and was told to come back the following day (Tuesday)....Read Full Article [Click Here>]
Speaking to journalists thereafter, he said, “We came here today in furtherance of our attempt to get materials to flesh up our petition in furtherance of the court order received on September 29, 2024.
“When we got here today, we were unable to get an audience with the REC but we were able to meet with the head of the legal department who told us that they were preparing a schedule for our inspection.
“We have not been able to inspect because we have not been able to have access to the BIVAS (Bimodal Voter Authentication System) machines to interrogate the same with our team. So, where we are right now, is that we were told whenever the schedule is ready we would be contacted by INEC which is not what we expected today.”
All the petitioners have till next Saturday to submit their petitions.
