The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, had on Wednesday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of bias, insisting that the Commission ought to maintain neutrality in electoral contests among candidates.
Obi, in a reply he filed before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), faulted the electoral body for filing a preliminary objection in support of the President-elect and candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Vanguard report claimed.
He noted that both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had in the past, cautioned INEC not to place itself “in a position where imputation of partiality in favour of one party against one will be levelled against it.”
The commission had in response prayed to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, to dismiss the petition filed by LP and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, saying the reliefs sought were not grantable.
The electoral body contended that Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, who were the APC presidential and vice presidential candidates were duly declared and returned as elected and issued Certificates of Return having fulfilled the requirements of the constitution to be so declared.
INEC is the 1st respondent in the petition filed before the tribunal by Obi, the 1st petitioner, and LP, the 2nd petitioner. They had dragged INEC, Tinubu, Shettima and the APC to the court as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.
In its reply filed by its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the INEC prayed the court to either “dismiss or strike out the petition for being grossly incompetent, abusive, vague, nebulous, generic, general, non-specific, ambiguous, equivocal, hypothetical and academic.”27.2K
Faulting INEC on neutrality, Obi, who came third in the February 25 presidential election, recalled that the apex court had in the case of Attorney General of the Federation V. Abubakar (2007) 10 NWLR (Pto 1041), emphasized that the electoral commission must not only embrace neutrality as its watchword but “must always remain fair and focused.”
He said: “The 1st 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 1st Respondent of its need to remain neutral in election proceedings. However, the 1st Respondent hereof has remained impervious to change.