2019 Election: Atiku legal team decries INEC refusal to documents

Tom Okpe, Abuja

The Atiku-Obi February 23, 2019 presidential election petition legal team has decried the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to produce polling documents from the elections after the Court of Appeal granted an order directing the commission to allow them access.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Peter Obi contested the presidential election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and claimed they won the election through majority vote but the election umpire INEC led by Prof. Mahmud Yakubu declared the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner.

A member of the team, Mr. Silas Onu says INEC have continued to deny them access to the materials which had been inspected and paid for in the previous week.

Onu said that efforts to meet with INEC’s legal team has become an uphill task as he insisted that they will continue to follow up until the commission complies with the court directives adding that, “they may be forced to file for contempt against INEC chairman and other officers of the commission if they do not give a positive response soon”.

Meanwhile, INEC’s director of voter education and publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi says the claims are not true but if the PDP is insisting on that position they should go back to the court and file a complaint.