The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the June 18, 2022, election in Ekiti State, Segun Oni, on Tuesday lamented that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is preventing his legal team from having access to inspect the election materials as ordered by the Election Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti.
This was contained in a press statement issued and signed by his campaign organisation Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Jackson Adebayo, in which he accused the electoral umpire of deliberately conniving with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to frustrate their efforts to retrieve the mandate it stole during the election.
The party explained that the Ekiti State office of INEC had on Monday denied the legal team access to the election materials, including the capturing machine used in the transmission of the results of the election, saying that INEC claimed all the materials are in its headquarters.
According to the statement, he asked why it has become the tradition of the Commission to transfer the materials used to conduct elections which are still being challenged at the tribunal to the headquarters, adding that the Commission is only playing to the gallery by these dangerous actions.
“We are aware of the surreptitious romance between the APC and the Commission after it was discovered that the manipulation perpetrated to award victory to the APC candidate, Biodun Oyebanji has been fingered.
“We, however, want to appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians to call on INEC to release the materials demanded inspection as provided by law which the Ekiti State election petition tribunal has appropriately ordered.
“We are still not comfortable with the claims by the Commission in Ado Ekiti that the materials are in the national headquarters as verifiable information has it that all the materials are in their store in the Ado Ekiti office; so if that be the case why the deceit and delay if something is not under a cover-up,” he said.
The organisation said that its legal team could not be intimidated nor frustrated, adding that the commission should know that the issues go beyond Oni but things of concern to the generality of Ekiti people.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Ekiti State, Mrs Rolake Odebunmi in a reaction confirmed and corroborated the earlier points raised by the organisation, adding that it was only half of the materials being requested for that are in the custody of the State INEC.
She said that “part of the materials, like 50% are not in the custody of the Ekiti State INEC”.
“The Commission in Ekiti State had told the organisation to check for the ones available in the state but they refused and said they don’t want it until they see the remaining materials.”
“The INEC office in Ekiti can only make available the materials in their custody”, INEC added, noting that the commission advised the Oni team to write a letter to its headquarters in Abuja for the release of other materials.
