Tempers flared yesterday at the Edo State Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as representatives from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) engaged in a shouting match while trying to start the inspection of materials used in the September 21 governorship election in the state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Edo, Dr. Onuoha Anugbum, issued a statement on Tuesday night, inviting political parties for the inspection of election materials at 10:00 am.
However, trouble began when the two parties disagreed on the procedures for the inspection.
As a result, the inspection of the election materials was postponed to the following morning after political parties argued that it was too late to start an exercise that was initially scheduled for 10:00 am.
Counsels to the PDP left the inspection room without speaking to journalists, while Counsel to the APC, Barrister Victor Ohionsumua, objected to the inspection’s commencement, stating that the schedule served to them was contrary to the court’s granted procedures order.
“You are aware that there is a court order, granted Exparte to PDP for inspection of materials. We were also proactive in APC and also filed for inspection of materials which was granted on the 7th of October, 2024.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) they invited us here that they are going to start the inspection of materials today (Wednesday ) by 10 am. Our legal team came here and we were served with a schedule just a few minutes ago, stating that they want to start with BIVAS machines.
“We Drew the INEC officers’ attention to the order obtained by them (PDP), which says that inspection of materials should start with the Voters’ Register. So upon which order are they complying when they now said we should start with BIVAS machines?
“So, they (INEC) looked at the order and found out that our objection had merit and said on the basis of that, we should start the inspection with the Voters’ Register.
Unfortunately, because we were not carried along with the preparation of the schedule, we didn’t come here (INEC office) today with our own Voters’ Register. We cannot inspect the Voters’ Register when there is no other Voters’ Register that we have to do some comparison.
“So, we now applied that in view of the fact that the time has gone, and we don’t have our Voters’ Register here, because we were not told when they want to start the inspection, we should adjourn the inspection to tomorrow.
Our request for an adjournment was approved, and all seven political parties agreed that we should reconvene tomorrow at 10 am to begin inspecting the Voters’ Register. Therefore, we will reconvene here at INEC tomorrow morning.
Corroborating the position of Barr. Ohionsumua, Emperor Jarrett Tenebe, the state APC Chairman, said the reason why Voters’ Register is an issue is because the case between PDP and PDP that is before the Supreme Court bothers on the candidate of the PDP not being a registered voter in Edo.
“The reason why Voters’ Register is an issue is that you (journalists) are aware that the case between PDP and PDP that is still in the Supreme Court has to do with the candidate of PDP not being registered in Edo.
“And the Register INEC gave to us before the election, we thoroughly looked at it and discovered that it does not have Asue Ighodalo in our register from them.
“That is the reason why we want to look at the register they want to give to us critically to ensure that we are not inspecting fake registers. So, that is the issue ground now. We are going to come with all the registers they gave to us tomorrow, to compare the registers they gave and whether the ones they have are real or fake”, he stressed.
Reacting to the adjournment, Hon. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, Director General of the 2024 Edo PDP governorship campaign Council, accused INEC of delaying the process in order for his party not to meet the next Saturday’s deadline for the submission of petition to the state governorship i Election Petition Tribunal.
He said “I can now see that the INEC is delaying this process because the filling of the case at the tribunal is time-bound.
“We have got an injunction to allow our lawyers to inspect the materials but they have not been able to do so for two days despite going to INEC for that purpose.
“What INEC did today (Wednesday) was to call lawyers of both parties and the APC arrived at the venue with lots of thugs. This is not the first time materials have been inspected so i don’t know why this one is different. We are going there tomorrow”, he said.
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