The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned some senior lawyers handling election petitions at tribunals to desist from sending junior lawyers to the commission to collect documents.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, gave the warning on Monday in Abuja when the commission issued a Certificate of Return to the House of Reps member-elect for Ehime Mbano/Ihitte Uboma/Obowo Federal Constituency, Imo State, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba.
He said these junior lawyers do not understand how election petition process work.
According to him, some of the junior lawyers on behalf of their bosses were fond of coming to the commission in search of some documents not meant for them and when the commission refuses to oblige them, they address press conferences accusing the commission of denying them the documents.
Okoye who presented the Certificate of Return to Nwajiuba said the commission was committed to giving political parties that are in election petition process whatever documents they wanted so long as those documents were in the possession of the commission.
He also assured that the commission would obey all court orders notwithstanding whether it favoured the commission or not.
He said it was not the duty of INEC to adjudicate on matters but the business of the election petition tribunal to adjudicate on such matters.
“Sometimes, some senior lawyers send junior lawyers who know next to nothing about election petition to the commission and they drop letters to the national headquarters here and ask for documents that ordinarily are not supposed to be given and when we don’t give them those documents, they will just walk across the gate and address a press conference claiming that the commission has refused to give them documents.
“So, I believe that the senior lawyers should be very careful in the way they make some comments and when they are sending people to come and collect documents or process documents, they should send lawyers who understand election petition process and how the system works,” Okoye said.
The House of Reps member-elect, Hon. Nwajiuba, who was elected on the platform of the Accord Party (AP) commended INEC and the judiciary for retrieving his mandate.
Nwajiuba who served in the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 emerged winner in the last February 23 election after the candidate of the APC was disqualified by the court.
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