The Labour Party (LP) has threatened to unleash supporters of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, known as Obidients in an angry showdown with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The LP said the impending protest is over the commission’s alleged refusal to grant it access to inspect certified true copies of materials used for the February 25, presidential election.
The party declared on Saturday that it would direct its supporters Obidient nationwide to embark on a protest to all INEC offices in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) if the commission refuses to obey the ruling of the presidential election petition tribunal.
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Daily Report Nigeria recalls that in a sitting in Abuja, the tribunal ordered for the Labour Party and its agents to be given access to inspect the election materials in the aftermath of INEC’s declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the presidential election.
According to INEC, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) came third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, not satisfied with the outcome of the poll, Atiku, Obi and their political parties have since approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge the outcome of the poll, obtaining an order have access to the election materials in the process.
In a statement by its general spokesperson, Yunusa Tanko, the LP said a nationwide protest at the INEC offices would curtail the electoral umpire’s disobedience of court orders.
He noted that INEC failed to obey the ruling on March 3, 2023, which directed Peter Obi leave to apply and receive certified true copies of materials used in the presidential election from the commission.
Tanko said, “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with greatest impunity have refused, neglected and failed to obey the Order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja made on the 03rd day of March 2023, directing it to grant the Labour Party and its presidential candidate.
“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”.
“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, 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,” Yunusa added.
Labour Party insisted that the order was duly served on INEC on the 3rd of March 2023 even though they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.
It also said a reminder letter was submitted to the commission, yet the ruling was not complied with.
Yunusa continued: “Not minding the service of the said Order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated the 6th day of March 2023 and delivered the 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.
“It should be noted that in a democracy like ours, rule of law must triumph not only in our legal system but also in our body polity as a whole. Parties to a litigation like in the instant case must accept and obey every order of the court in good faith and no party should be seen to employ self-help to disparage or disrespect an order of the court which if not checked and curtailed could undermine our democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism”.
