The candidate for governor of the Social Democratic Party in the elections of June 18 of the state of Ekiti, According to Onihas filed a contempt lawsuit against Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner Adeniran Tela for allegedly disobeying an order from the governorate’s electoral court.
Oni said the lawsuit was filed against Tela for refusing to comply with a court order allowing him unrestricted access to election materials used in the conduct of the election.
Mr. Oni, in a separate petition dated August 29 and addressed to INEC President Mahmood Yakubu, accused the REC of deliberately trying to thwart the diligent prosecution of his case in court.
One of his lawyers, Owoseeni Ajayi, told reporters in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday that the action against the REC became necessary after he asked Mr. Oni to approach the INEC office in Abuja, rather than from to Ado-Ekiti, to obtain electoral material to prosecute his case.
Mr. Ajayi said that it was a flagrant violation of the law for the REC to have given such an instruction, saying that documents were issued and electoral material was inspected at the Ado Ekiti office of the INEC, in all cases of previous electoral petitions that had taken place in the state. .
“After the presentation of our petition, we request (sic) some documents to process our case. We also defended the inspection of some electoral materials, which the Court granted”, said Mr. Ajayi.
“We were surprised when a letter dated August 23, 2022 signed personally by REC and addressed to the respondent stated that the party/counsel should write to INEC Headquarters, Abuja to obtain the documents/materials as stated in the court order. .
“This letter was highly uniformed and disparaging of the court for the fact that at the meeting held with the parties on August 22, 2022 by REC, there was no discussion of the parties writing to the INEC headquarters, Abuja because we acted purely out of court order.
“The inspection of electoral materials was never done in Abuja, but in the central office of the state. Therefore, it is derogatory for the REC to vary the Court’s order by instructing the parties to write to the INEC office in Abuja. This was strange, illegal and beyond comprehension. It has never happened anywhere.
“Therefore, it is clear that the REC was acting with a script of impunity to frustrate the petitioner’s case. Nigerians should take note of this dubious impunity act of INEC’s attempt to derail democracy in Ekiti. Opposition parties also have their rights in democracy”.
In the petition titled: “Deliberate Attempt to Thwart Ekiti Petitioner’s Case”, Mr. Ajayi recounted how Ekiti REC had allegedly thwarted the petitioner, and asked the commission to correct the anomaly to save INEC’s image.
However, Tela has denied the accusations, saying he has nothing to fear from the lawsuit.
Tela said that the commission and its staff had been fair to all parties, including the SDP which had been bringing all kinds of accusations against him.
He clarified that he had no reason to prevent any of the parties from obtaining any public document in the custody of the INEC and, therefore, had nothing to hide.
“I am not afraid of anything, because we comply with the law,” said Mr. Tela.
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“I have even ordered all of our staff to stay away from politics, so I have no reason to be partisan. Ours is to hold elections and the vote on June 18 was the best in history. It has earned us praise and awards.
“I am using this time to inform all parties that INEC staff in Ekiti are non-partisan and have no interest in this petition. But whoever gets any document from us must be ready to follow all legal procedures.”
Last week, the court granted All Progressives Congress candidate Biodun Oyebanji permission to inspect election materials as well, even though he was the winner of the election and one of the defendants in the petition.
Mr. Oni had asked the court to annul the election due to serious irregularities and declare him the winner for having obtained the highest number of legal votes in the election.