The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said that the commission has provided all the documents required by political parties that applied through the required process in relation to the ongoing election petition tribunals.
INEC national commissioner on voter education, Festus Okoye who appeared on the Channels Television programme, “Politics Today “ explained that it was not true that INEC was not responsive to all issues of subpoenas.
He said ahead of the three governorship elections in November, it is important for the commission to allow the election petitions tribunal to commence their work and not to be seen as interfering.
Okoye stated that the INEC chairman had answered all the subpoenas directed at 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.”
