A five-man panel of justices of the presidential electoral tribunal has ordered the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Zamfara State Resident Electoral Commissioner to appear on or before 12 noon on Thursday.
The order which was given on Wednesday came following a complaint by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the subpoena served on both INEC officials, since July 12 and 15 respectively, have not been complied with.
Lawyer to the PDP, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), had told the tribunal that, “We have made concerted efforts and we stated in the letters we wrote to them that we have it on good authority that they were instructed not to release the documents.”
Delivering the ruling, Justice Garba said, “I have seen from the record of the court that the INEC Chairman and the Resident Electoral Commission, Zamfara State, were duly served with subpoena issued on July 9, 2019, to produce documents named therein.
Read Also Fani-Kayode react to call for herdsmen to leave Southern Nigeria, says ‘this will restore peace’
“The INEC chairman and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Zamfara and the legal team representing them are under binding obligation to ensure that the orders contained in the subpoena are obeyed.”
The PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February presidential election.
The petitioners claim that President Buhari was not qualified to contest and that INEC manipulated the result in his favour.
