Why we refused to accept admittance of our documents in evidence – INEC

Our reporter/ The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday explained it opposed the admissibility of its own in evidence at the election petition tribunal.

The labour party (LP) and its presidential candidate Peter Obi had on Thursday sought to tender the documents as exhibits to establish their petition against the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

But INEC, through its counsel, Kemi Pinhero, SAN, objected to the admission of the documents.

INEC also objected to all the certified true copies of the Form EC8A on Friday as the petitioners sought to tender from local governments across six states.

According to Pinhero, INEC, kicked against the tendering of certified true copies of the documents, mainly election result sheets, on the grounds that they were strange to the petition.

Pinhero explained that issues were not joined in the local government areas where the result sheets were sought to be tendered, adding that it was wrong for the petitioners to go beyond the areas where the election was disputed.

According to INEC, the local government areas unlawfully smuggled into proceedings of the court are totally strange to the petition and cannot stand in the face of the law.

The Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, however, held that it was wrong for INEC’S lawyer to attempt to give reasons for his objection now when all parties had agreed during the pre-hearing stage to give reasons at the address stage.

The counsel, however, said that he was compelled to offer some explanation following the bashing the commission received in the media that it was objecting to the admittance of its own documents in court.

Meanwhile, the court on Friday admitted as exhibits, Forms EC8A from 21 local government areas of Adamawa,  Lagos state, eight local government areas of Bayelsa and parts of Rivers and Niger  as tendered by the petitioners.