We have nothing to hide, INEC chair tells LP’s legal team

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says the commission has nothing to hide from the Labour Party (LP).

Speaking during a meeting with the legal team of the LP on Monday, the INEC chairman said the commission would make available any document the party requests.

Recall that the legal team of the party was having a meeting with officials of INEC over the request to inspect materials used for the February 25 presidential poll.

Yakubu told the legal team that materials at the commission’s headquarters would be provided.

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He said a meeting would be fixed between states and the team to inspect materials in the custody of states’ offices of the commission across the country.

“I want to assure you that the commission will not hide any document from anybody and will make available any document that they have requested. There are two categories of documents; those that are in possession of the headquarters of INEC, we will easily make these documents available to you,” he said.

“The EC8E, the declaration, so many, a total of I think 39 documents, we can easily certify and give you almost immediately.

“As for other documents that you are asking for, they are at the state level. So, we need to work out the schedule so that we know when your team is going to which state and on which date so that we can easily facilitate not just the certification of documents, but also the inspection of these documents that you requested.

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“The other one is accreditation data from the back end. This will also be made available to you. Remember that the accreditation data covers over 176,000 polling units.

“We have to print them physically to certify them and give them to you. So the tall and short of what I’m saying is that you will get this document speedily.

“They will also make arrangements and notify our resident electoral commissioners of your intended visit so that these documents will be made available to you, including access to the inspection of any category of materials.

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“So I crave your indulgence to suggest that let your team interface with the legal team of the commission immediately. So you work these things out and then we make all the documents available to you.

“But please be assured, the lead counsel, that INEC has nothing to hide. Whatever you are asking for will be made available to you.”