Atiku vs Buhari: Tribunal Gives INEC Chairman New Order

The national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has been ordered by the presidential election petition tribunal to produce some documents requested by the petitioners.

Yaahoo Journalist reports that the five-member panel of judges led by Justice Mohammed Garba gave the INEC Chairman up till 12 pm on Thursday, July 18.

The tribunal also gave the same order to the Zamfara resident electoral commissioner (REC) to produce results sheets of all the polling units in the state for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Yaahoo Journalist understands that the ruling was a sequel to an application by Chris Uche, PDP counsel, on Wednesday, July 17.

The PDP counsel had told the tribunal that the INEC chairman and REC have failed to comply with subpoenas issued by the court.

“Permit me to bring to your attention some preliminary issues. The subpoena dated 9th July on INEC chairman which we paid for has not been released to us,” he said.

“On the same 9th July another subpoena was on the REC Zamfara and we applied for all the EC8As. We paid for them and they refused to release them to us.”

The PDP counsel then asked the tribunal to assist them to get the documents.

While delivering the ruling, the tribunal noted that it was impossible for the INEC chairman and REC to produce the documents on the day they were served the subpoenas.

“We note that the INEC chairman and REC were asked to produce documents on the day they were served, that is impossible,” Garba held.

“They have been directed to produce documents in the subpoenas by 12 pm tomorrow.”

Yaahoo Journalist understands petitioners are seeking to tender these documents as evidence.