Efforts by the leadership of the Edo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to truncate the effort of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) and its candidate Osagie Ize- Iyamu to inspect electoral materials used for the conduct of the September 28, 2016 governorship election in the state was unsuccessful.
BusinessDay reports that the APC and its candidate, Godwin Obaseki, the declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are respondents in the PDP petition before the election petition tribunal.
At the commencement of the joint inspection of the electoral materials at the premises of the state office of INEC by both parties on Thursday, a counsel to APC objected to the inspection on the grounds that the respondents have filed a suit challenging the commencement of the inspection process before the court.
The APC counsel who does not want his name in print, “we have filed a petition at the tribunal but the PDP say they want to go ahead”.
Reacting to the APC’s suit, Edoba Omoregie, counsel to the PDP in an interview told newsmen that the fact that APC has filed a suit, which the court is yet to hear, cannot alter the process both parties earlier agreed upon.
The inspection of the electoral materials however commenced following the intervention by the INEC administrative secretary who put the situation order control.
In a letter signed by the INEC Administrative Secretary, Oscar Lee Amaechi, dated November2 2016 with reference No. INEC/ED/ADM/476/111 and copies made available to the chairmen/secretaries of the PDP and the APC and their counsels, detailed the modalities for the inspection.
The letter said the commencement of the inspection “is in compliance with the tribunal order on the commission and the agreement reached between the representatives of the petitioners and the respondents on modalities for the inspection of documents”.
The commission added that all parties including representatives of the petitioners (PDP, Osagie Ize-Iyamu) and the respondents (APC, Godwin Obaseki) had earlier agreed that the inspection will be jointly carried out, and as such it will stick to this decision.
The Commission also said that, “where a party is not present by 9am , inspection will not stop, it must go on”.
