Appeal Court grants Atiku, Obi’s requests to inspect INEC’s presidential electoral materials

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday approved the request of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to review the election materials used to conduct the presidential election.

Atiku and Mr. Obi are the presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labor Party (LP), for the February 25 presidential poll.

Duo, who lost with All Progressive Congress The presidential candidate and president-elect (APC), Bola Tinubu, said the election was flawed.

Mr. Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes to beat Atiku and Mr. Obi in the contest.

Atiku and Obi have initiated separate legal actions to challenge the election results at the Court of Appeal in Abuja. The Court of Appeal acts as a Presidential Election Petition Court where the results of the presidential election are challenged by aggrieved candidates.

Both have filed separate ex parte applications, praying to be granted access to inspect sensitive materials used by INEC to conduct last Saturday’s presidential poll.

Mr. Obi, on Friday, obtained leave from the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to have access to all sensitive materials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, tasked with conducting the February 25 presidential election.

Joseph Ikyegh, who presided over the appeal court panel, ordered INEC to have Atiku and Mr. Obi review the election materials.

The plaintiffs listed the election referee, INEC, APC and Mr. Tinubu as defendants in the suit.

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The plaintiffs based their request on the provisions of the Election Act and the constitution to demand the examination of the poll materials.

In a joint and separate press conference, Atiku and Mr. Obi questioned the failure of INEC to transmit the results of the presidential election electronically from the polling unit to the IREV portal.

Alex Ejesieme, Mr. Obi’s lawyer, asked for six prayers while Atiku’s lawyer, Ademola Faloku, issued seven prayers.

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He asked the court to order INEC to allow access to sensitive materials distributed for the presidential election.

Justifying their request, the duo said the document would help them file a petition to challenge the emergence of Mr. Tinubu as president-elect at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.

PREMIUM TIMES reported last week that the registry of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal is now open in Abuja.

On March 1, the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, announced Mr. Tinubu as the president-elect after defeating 17 candidates in the race.

The election results as declared by INEC showed Mr. Tinubu got a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who got a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Obi came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.