The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said the chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, is not refusing a subpoena to appear before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT.
This is as the commission warned Labour Party, LP, and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi to refrain from blaming the commission whenever they hit a stumbling block in prosecution of their case before the tribunal.
INEC’s lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), who issued the admonition, said the commission and its legal team would not become a “whipping boy” in prosecution of LP’s case.
Pinheiro was reacting to a claim by the lawyer to LP and Obi, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) on Wednesday.
Uzoukwu had blamed INEC, mid-way into proceedings on Wednesday after another member of the petitioners’ legal team, Audu Anuga (SAN), who was tendering documents, suddenly announced that he has exhausted what they have for the day.
The lawyer claimed that the office of the Chairman of INEC declined to accept a subpoena served on Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to produce some documents.
Uzoukwu, who is the leader of the petitioners’ legal team, rose and told the court that his team would have loved to continue, but for the refusal of the INEC Chairman’s office to accept a subpoena served on him to produce some documents, a development that was hindering progress in their case.
But, the INEC lawyer, Pinheiro noted that it had become a trend with the petitioners to always look for someone to blame whenever they were stuck and unable to effectively prosecute their case.
He said, “It has become a habit. Whenever they want to seek an adjournment, they look for somebody to whip. It cannot be true that a subpoena is refused by the office of the INEC Chairman.
“Don’t use INEC as a whipping boy. If they have nothing else to do today, they should just say so. It is their day. It is not correct that the office of INEC Chairman refused to accept a subpoena,” he added