2023 Polls: You Can Inspect Electoral Materials – Tribunal Okays Obi, Atiku’s Request
- As PDP, LP flag off battle on February 25 presidential election
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The Court of Appeal Abuja has granted the request by the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar, to access all the sensitive materials deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in conducting the February 25 presidential election.
Led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, a panel of the appellate court made the orders on Friday after it heard two separate ex parte applications filed by the two presidential candidates alongside their political parties.
Cited as respondents in the case are INEC, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as well as his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Both applications are predicated on Section 146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2, and 3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the court as referenced by Section 6 (6) (a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution, as amended.
In his application moved by Alex Ejesieme, the LP flag bearer sought six principal reliefs, while the Wazirin Adamawa’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, on his part sought seven prayers from the Tribunal.
Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents in its custody that were used for the presidential election, maintaining that the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential contest that was declared in favour of Tinubu.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that both the PDP and LP candidates have so far rebuffed the gesture of reconciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech, had requested them to support him in the task of building the nation.
But in separate media briefings in Abuja on Thursday, the two candidates pointedly said the Tribunal is the place to go given the counsel from INEC and the APC. And they made good their resolve on Friday by seeking the Tribunal’s permission to inspect election materials used during last Saturday’s poll.
Their bone of contention is INEC’s declaration of the APC Standard bearer as the winner of the presidential poll, having scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to beat Atiku with 6,984,520 votes, and Obi in the third place with 6,101,533 votes.