The Labour Party has threatened that it would not fail to call on supporters to march to Independent National Electoral Commission offices nationwide in a non violent protest over what it described as flagrant disobedience to court orders by the Electoral Commission.
In a statement released by the Party on Saturday claiming that the Electoral Commission refused, neglected and failed to obey the Order of Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja on the 3rd day of March 2023.
The Order which grant the Labour Party and its presidential candidate H.E. Peter Gregory Obi leave to apply and receive from INEC, certified true copies of materials used in the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.
The Party recalled that the aforesaid Order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on the 3rd of March 2023 despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.
“Not minding the service of the said Order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated the 6th day of March 2023 and delivered same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid Order of such magnitude till NOW”.
The LP noted that in a democracy like that of Nigeria, rule of law must triumph not only in its legal system but also in its body polity as a whole. “Parties to a litigation like in the instant case must accept.
“And obey every order of court in good faith and no party should be seen to employ self-help to disparage or disrespect an order of court which if not checked and curtailed could possibly undermine our democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism”, the Party said.
Labour Party stated that the action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply to the order of court.
“As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BIVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials”, the Party claimed.
While called on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as Electoral Commission.
“And which is a well calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the Petition by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time”, the Party added.
According to the party, “We therefore want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non violent protest which is allowed by law. This is to curtail the flagrant disobedience to court orders by INEC”.
The Labour Party and its Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi rejected the Presidential election results which declared the All Progressive Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu the winner, claiming the results was manipulated.
