Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Lawyers to Ekiti State governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, have alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has granted the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lawyers access to electoral documents used for the July 14 governorship poll without notifying other parties.
A member of Fayemi’s legal team, Mr. Tajudeen Akingbolu, said his party has formally written to INEC requesting for the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the electoral documents which had not been granted.
Akingbolu said the documents requested include Forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E among others, wondering why INEC had allegedly allowed PDP lawyers access to the documents without the knowledge of other parties.
He said the normal practice is that when a party has been given access to electoral documents, other parties must be notified and their lawyers must be present to prevent any of the documents from being mutilated or tampered with.
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Akingbolu, who spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, said he had gone to INEC office to see the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. AbdulGaniyu Raji, on the development but was told he was not on seat.
When contacted, INEC spokesman, Mr. Taiwo Gbadegesin, declined comments on the matter saying “only the REC can speak on the development.”
Akingbolu said: “Immediately after the election was conducted, July 16 to be precise, we wrote an application to the REC to the effect that we need CTCs of Forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and other documents used for the conduct of the election but up till now, we have not been granted access to those documents.