Senator Godswill Akpabio’s lawyer, Mr Patrick Umoh, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State of frustrating the inspection of materials.This came after the Chairman of the state election petitions tribunal, Justice W. Akanbi granted Akpabio permission to inspect and copy all election materials used for the conduct of the election. However Akpabio’s lawyer who spoke with Punch, accused INEC of frustrating inspection of materials. Umoh said, “We have not commenced proper inspection of the materials. When we got there yesterday (Tuesday), all the materials used for the governorship, presidential and National Assembly elections were put in one place. We demanded for the voter registers, result sheets and others, but they refused to provide them on the grounds that they were supposed to be brought in by electoral officers from the respective local government councils. There is a systemic frustration that has been pre-arranged by INEC.” However the electoral commission’s Public Affairs Officer in the state, Mr Don Etukudo, who denied the allegation revealed that a schedule was given to the legal team and it was able to sort materials for 10 local government areas on Tuesday when the inspection resumed. According to him, materials for Ini, Abak and Etim Ekpo local government areas were scheduled to be sorted on Wednesday.
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