Victor EzejaLabour Party Presidential candidate in the just concluded election, Peter Obi, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of being biased in the ongoing proceedings on the petition challenging the outcome of the presidential poll.
Obi and Labour Party jointly filed a petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Abuja Court of Appeal, to challenge the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the February 25 election and President-elect.
Obi and his party who are co-petitioners while replying to the response of INEC to his petition at the tribunal, observed that the action of the electoral umpire was unwarranted.
He faulted INEC for filing a preliminary objection in support of the President-elect, Tinubu.
He observed that the electoral umpire ought to remain neutral and not align with the other respondents (Tinubu, Shettima, and APC) as INEC did through its response.
He recalled that several court judgments had repeatedly admonished INEC of the need to remain neutral in election proceedings.
According to him: “The first respondent, forgetting its role as an electoral umpire, gave a Notice of Preliminary Objection to challenge the alleged incompetence of the petition.
“The global best practice for electoral umpires in national elections is that an electoral body must avoid creating the impression that it has no respect for neutrality in an electoral contest between candidates.
“The appellate courts have repeatedly admonished the first respondent of its need to remain neutral in election proceedings. However, the first Respondent hereof has remained impervious to change.
“Therefore, it is not only an embarrassment but a repudiation of the duty of the first respondent when it adorns the garb of a contestant in an election it conducted as an umpire to raise preliminary objection against an election petition as in the case hereof.
“The expectation is that INEC will maintain a neutral stance in all litigations where participants in elections are challenging the outcome of the elections and not indulge in filing objections to the petition,” Obi maintained.
He added that they will during the hearing of the petition, urge the Court to strike out INEC’s “Notice of Preliminary Objection.”
He also described as “misconceived”, INEC’s preliminary objection against the petition he lodged against the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election.
“The first respondent’s contention that the reliefs sought in the petition are not grantable is false and made in manifest disregard of the specific and concise pleadings in the petition.
“The pleading in the 1st Respondent’s Notice of Preliminary Objection that the allegation in paragraph 20(ii) of the Petition is defective and does not disclose a cause of action, is wishful thinking”.
“The first respondent’s contention that the reliefs sought in the petition are not grantable is false and made in manifest disregard of the specific and concise pleadings in the petition.
“The pleading in the 1st Respondent’s Notice of Preliminary Objection that the allegation in paragraph 20(ii) of the Petition is defective and does not disclose a cause of action, is wishful thinking.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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