Court Permits Peter Obi, Atiku To Inspect INEC Election Materials

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, have secured leave of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja to inspect the sensitive materials used for the February 25 Presidential election.

The court also directed the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to grant the two aggrieved presidential candidates access to the materials during the Friday sitting.

Naija News recalls that Peter Obi and Atiku held separate press conferences on Thursday to reject the outcome of Saturday’s presidential election which declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress the president-elect.

In line with their rejection of the outcome, they approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja earlier today to secure permission to access the materials used to conduct the controversial presidential election.

After hearing two separate ex-parte applications filed by the two disappointed presidential candidates and their respective political parties, an appellate court bench led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh granted their prayers.

The APC and Tinubu were named as respondents in the case.

The Election Act of 2022’s Section 146 (1), the First Schedule’s Paragraphs 47 (1, 2 & 3), and the Court’s inherent authority as described in Sections 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, all supported the requests.

Atiku’s counsel, Mr. Adedamola Faloku, asked the tribunal for seven petitions, whereas the legal team for Obi, under the leadership of Mr. Alex Ejesieme, SAN, asked for six significant reliefs in their plea.

The applicants expressly asked the court to force INEC to hand over the records it had collected and used to conduct the presidential election to them. They maintained that the required documents would help them prove their case against Tinubu and the APC which the court granted.