Lawyers of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, since Monday, have been inspecting the election materials used for the February 25 presidential election as directed by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
This is just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and backend report of over 11,000 pages was being finalised and would be made available to the lawyers.
The commission said the February 25 result sheets and ballot papers were in the various states, not at the INEC headquarters, Abuja.
The LP’s lawyers as well as their People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) counterparts had met with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s lawyers in Abuja Tuesday.
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had granted the requests of PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar; LP’s Obi’s and that of the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC to inspect the election materials used during the presidential poll.
A report submitted on Tuesday to INEC by the three parties’ lawyers indicated that the LP’s team began the inspection on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of INEC’s lawyers, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, said the commission had forms Ec8d (summary of results) of each state and FCT, Ec8da (national summary) and Ec8a.
He said the BVAS and backend report of over 11,000 pages was being finalised and that the result sheets and ballot papers were in the various states, not at the INEC headquarters.
He suggested that a timeline for visitation for all parties be made for ease and the persons appointed to inspect be limited.
