In response to what it claims is the Independent National Electoral Commission’s refusal to consider their appeal challenging the results of the 2023 presidential election, the Labour Party has vowed to call on its members to occupy INEC offices nationwide.
In a statement released on Saturday, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, the party’s presidential candidate’s spokesman, accused INEC of disobeying a court order directing the electoral umpire to give the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, access to the certified true copies of materials used in the election.
“It will be recalled that the aforesaid order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on March 3, 2023, despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.
“Not minding the service of the said order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated March 6, 2023, and delivered same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid Order of such magnitude till now,” Tanko said.
According to reports, the Court of Appeal in Abuja on March 3 approved Atiku Abubakar’s and his rival from the Labour Party, Obi, requests to examine the election materials used during the presidential election on February 25.
In order to obtain authorization for the scrutiny of election materials used during the vote, Atiku and Obi went to the Presidential Election Court.
According to reports, Atiku and Obi vowed to fight for their mandate in court and refused to accept loss in the presidential election on February 25.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, who was declared the winner of the election, asked the two candidates to support him in the task of constructing the country in his acceptance speech. The two candidates rejected this offer of reconciliation.
Both the PDP and the LP challenged the election results due to, among other things, allegations of rigging and voter intimidation.
Reacting further, Tanko said, “The action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply with the order of court.
“As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BIVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials.
“We, therefore, call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, and which is a well-calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.
“We, therefore, want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by law.”
