Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission ((INEC) has for the first time responded to accusations that it failed to follow the Electoral Act 2022 and also failed to abide by its own guidelines on mode of collation of results in the last presidential election.

TheNiche in a report says, INEC’s response is an indication of the legal line of argument it intends to canvass in its defence at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

INEC’s position was in response to a petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP) before the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) in Abuja.
The APP is challenging the result of the presidential poll and the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer, Bola Tinubu, on the grounds of alleged substantial non-compliance with the electoral laws of Nigeria, as well as breach of the INEC guidelines.

But in a reply to the suit instituted by one of the parties, the APP, INEC through one of its lawyers, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), insisted that it conducted free and fair polls on February 25.

“The election was free, fair, credible and in compliance with the constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022 and other relevant laws and guidelines,” stated in one of the documents before the tribunal.

The APP had alleged that INEC breached its own laws and guidelines.