Tension at the ongoing Enugu tribunal
The Labour Party and its Enugu state governorship candidate Chijioke Edeoga's camp are at odds over whether or not Enugu's Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Chukwuemeka Chukwu, will show up on Sunday at the Tribunal with the Bimodal Voter's Accreditation System, BVAS, used in the state's governorship election on March 18, 2023.
A dispute has arisen because the REC has issued a subpoena demanding that INEC allow all members of the Labour Party to see the BVAS, but INEC has refused to comply. The Tribunal resumed its hearings on Saturday, when attorneys argued about the appropriate method of subpoena service in light of recent Supreme Court rulings. However, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Kudirat Akano, decided in favour of substituted service on INEC via its counsel, Okoye.
Peter Mbah and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were represented in court by prominent solicitors like Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Anthony Ani (SAN), Ikechukwu Oluoma, and others. After questioning a few witnesses, Labour Party attorney Valerie Azinge brought up the matter of the alleged subpoena served on the REC to produce the BVAS machine.
Nonetheless, the REC's attorney was the recipient of the subpoena rather than the REC himself, as the Supreme Court had ruled. The court agreed with the PDP, but the LP's attorney filed a new motion to have the subpoena served via substituted service because the original one had been returned as undeliverable. The counsel, Okoye, represented INEC in court as a replacement for the INEC attorney. Serving complete.
The deadline for LP to present its case is this Sunday, and the party is awaiting a ruling from the Tribunal on the INEC Subpoena standoff. Also postponed until Sunday was the case brought by the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and its governorship candidate, Mr. Frank Nweke jr.
It was unclear how the tribunal's subpoena would reach the INEC between Saturday night and Sunday morning, when the hearing was delayed.
“Having serviced the INEC council, it means that the REC has been served with the subpoena, but what will happen with the subpoena is now what we will see tomorrow (Sunday) because if tomorrow is Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday and the INEC counsel has not said that the subpoena has gotten to the REC, we really don’t know what will happen tomorrow (Sunday), but the purport of the subpoena is to bring the BVAS machine and give evidence,” PDP counsel Uloma said.