The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has constituted his legal team as the Court of Appeal in Abuja is set to rule on the application filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it used to conduct the 2023 presidential election.
The court has set Wednesday, March 8, 2023, to rule on the suit filed by the electoral umpire.
But Peter Obi’s team asked the court to reject the request as granting such would allow INEC to tamper with the evidence in the matter going to the Presidential Election Tribunal.
Obi’s legal team includes Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN; Chief Awa Kalu, SAN; Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN; P.I.N. Ikwueto, SAN; Chief Ben Anyachebe, SAN; S.T. Hon, SAN; Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN; Ik Ezechukwu, SAN; J.S. Okutepa, SAN; Dr. Mrs. Valerie Azinge, SAN; Emeka Okpoko, SAN; and Alex Ejesieme, SAN.
An inside source told The Guardian that Peter Obi’s legal team is still being constituted, and “these are not all the senior advocates of Nigeria on the team. More are still signing up.”
Obi’s legal team stated that the data on the BVAS contains the substance of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate’s case against INEC’s unlawful manipulation of the February 25 election’s results and processes.
The team informed the court that its forensic experts had not been granted access to INEC systems to inspect them before the said transfer of data, and the said process is not clearly spelled out to all parties concerned.
Obi’s lawyers questioned the motives of INEC to be so hasty to compromise the principal evidence of the election umpire’s fraudulent manipulation of the election results.
The case is being heard by a three-person Court of Appeal panel headed by Justice Joseph Ikyegh.
