The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced yesterday that it had provided all of the documents requested by political parties who applied through the proper channels in relation to the ongoing election petition tribunals.
Festus Okoye, INEC’s national commissioner on voter education, stated on Channels Television’s “Politics Today” that it was not true that INEC was not responsive to all issues of subpoenas.
He stated that in advance of the three governorship elections in November, the commission must allow the election petition tribunal to begin its work without interfering.
Okoye stated that the INEC chairman had responded to all subpoenas issued to him.
He said;
The commission is a constitutional body and public trust and it belongs to all Nigerians, the commission do not have personal interest on what’s going before the various election petition tribunals.
What the law envisages the commission to do is to present facts and figures in relation to the election it conducted before the various election petition tribunals so it’s not true that the commission has not been responsive.
If you want to issue a subpoena, there are processes and procedure to follow… we provided all the documents they need to prosecute their petitions and all the subpoena directed to the electoral commission and resident electoral commissioners and were channeled in accordance with the rules and procedures were answered, so we did not disobey any subpoena and we produced all the documents, he added.
Speaking on the glitches encountered in uploading the 2023 election results, he said;
We explained to Nigerians there were challenges uploading the results … Every party has agents at all the polling units. I find it slightly difficult to understand why they are relying on the results from the IREV.