The Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has set March 21 for parties in the petition challenging the victory of Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the November 11, 2023, election to close their case.
At the last proceedings on Monday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in Imo State, Samuel Anyanwu, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of denying it access to material that were used to conduct the governorship election in the state.
The PDP and its candidate told the election tribunal sitting in Abuja that they needed the material to prove that Uzodimma did not secure most of the votes in the election.
However, responding to the allegation, INEC told the tribunal that the petitioners failed to meet the condition stipulated in Section 253(2) of the Evidence Act and Order 20 rule 10 of the Federal High Court rules.
Lead counsel to the petitioners, Johnson Usman, had accused the electoral body of flouting the order of the court by its failure to make available to his clients some electoral materials used for the governorship election, including the voters register.
He told the three-member tribunal, led by Justice O. Akintan-Osadebay, that the commission has refused to produce the election materials after collecting the sum of N5 million from the petitioners, as processing fee, since January 26, 2024.
Usman further told the commission that outside the N5 million paid as processing fee, the petitioners equally paid the sum of N4 million to a business centre for photocopying of the voters register.
Usman added: “On February 7, 2024, INEC said we should pay N50,000 for the Certified True Copy (CTC), which we did, and it issued us a receipt.” He lamented that out of the 27 local councils of the state, INEC only provided the CTC of the voters register from seven of them.
