LP’s legal team meets INEC over inspection of election materials

The legal team of the Labour Party (LP) is currently meeting with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to inspect materials used for the February 25 presidential poll.

Livy Uzoukwu, head of the legal team, led 60 lawyers to the meeting which is taking place at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

On March 1, INEC declared Bola Tinubu, candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election.

Peter Obi, the LP standard bearer, subsequently challenged the result in court, alleging irregularities by the electoral commission.

Consequently, the court of appeal granted leave to Obi to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the election.

But on Saturday, the LP accused INEC of not allowing Obi’s lawyers access to the materials despite the court ruling.

Speaking in a chat with Arise TV on Monday, Obi said he is not interested in challenging the “outcome” of the election, but in the process leading to the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect.

He said INEC, as a public institution, should always submit itself to scrutiny from Nigerians.

The controversy over the inspection of election materials, especially the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), contributed to the postponement of the governorship and state assembly elections to March 18.

The electoral body had said the reconfiguration of the BVAS devices cannot be completed before March 11 — the date earlier fixed for the second phase of the general election.