From Sylvia Udegbunam Enugu

The Labour Party Enugu State has lamented the refusal by INEC to allow the party and its Governorship candidate, Hon Chijioke Edeoga to inspect the  materials used by Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), during the March 18, 2023 general election, especially the Bimodal  Voter Accreditation Machine, insisting that it must be in agreement with the People’s Democratic party members.

It will be recalled that the Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu, Chijioke Edeoga  had written a petition to the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmud yakubu accusing the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu for refusing to comply with the order of the Tribunal, an allegation that was denied, prompting the scheduling of the inspection for July 12, 2023.

The Labour Party inspection team led by the Deputy Governorship candidate of the party Dr John Nwokeabia, on Wednesday by 9.00 AM arrived INEC office at Independence layout Enugu to carry out the court order but was prevented by the Head of Department, Voter Education, INEC, Chuka Achumie. 

According to the spokesman of the Edeoga campaign Organization, Engr George Ugwu, while addressing the press at INEC premises complained that “we have been here since morning to carry out a court order by a tribunal, which allows Labour Party and it’s Candidate to inspect the materials used by INEC particularly the BVAS.

“We have been here to get INEC to comply with this court order. INEC instead of carrying out the court order, which was very explicit that Labour Party should be allowed to inspect their materials in their present. They went and invited all the other parties in Enugu State. Since morning, INEC has been forcing us to compromise with these other parties especially PDP, ranking PDP and Labour Party as equal pedestrian, yet it was Labour Party that got this order from the tribunal”

“Now, INEC is insisting that we must have a consensus with PDP, that PDP must agree with us before we inspect the materials. This is something that is very strange to us. We have never seen anything like this before. A court Order is been flaunted by a responsible agency of the federal government” he said.

He wondered that INEC was not above the law by playing all sorts of games with the party.

“They have not carried out the law. The police was here to implement this order but INEC keeps insisting even before the police that we must go and get the consensus of the PDP. There is no way the court order says that it has to be inspected in the presence of other parties. It was just that labour party should be given access to these materials, and INEC had enough expertise to know if labour party is going beyond the bound” he said.

The situation led to a shout-out match at the INEC premises in Enugu leading to the disruption of the exercise by  some suspected political thugs.