Obi, Atiku secure leave of Appeal court to inspect INEC’s sensitive materials

Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in last Saturday’s Presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, Friday, secured leave of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to have access to all the sensitive materials deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the February 25 poll.

Also, the appellate court, which will sit as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, equally ordered INEC to also grant the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar access to the election materials.

Also, the court heard the Exparte application brought before it by the Presidential candidates of the Labour Party Mr. Peter Obi urging the Court to grant the application for hearing.

Both PDP and LP had rejected the outcome, process of the presidential election citing irregularities by INEC, as they vowed to challenge it in court.

The ruling comes barely 24 hours after both candidates had announced their intention to challenge the result of the presidential election which had placed them as first and second runners’ up to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was declared winner, last Wednesday, by INEC.

Obi at a World Press Conference held at the Transport Hilton, in Abuja, had vowed that he will challenge the result of the election, as he argued that the process ‘did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, transparent, credible fair election.’

“The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and results announced as programmed; As we were promised.

“This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, transparent, credible fair election.

“It may go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria. The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders who they trusted,” Obi told attendees at the press conference.

On his part, the PDP candidate, Atiku blasted the INEC on the conduct of the polls, describing the outcome as ‘the worst in the history of Nigeria.’

 A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the orders after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.

Cited as respondents in the matter were INEC, the acclaimed winner of the presidential election, Bola Tinubu, as well as his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Both applications were predicated on Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &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 & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

While Obi, in his application moved by his team of lawyers led by Mr Alex Ejesieme SAN, sought six principal reliefs, Atiku’s lawyer, Mr Adedamola Faloku, 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.

They maintained that the requested documents would aid their petition against the outcome of the presidential contest that was declared in favour of the candidate of the APC, Tinubu.

It would be recalled that following the announcement of the winner of last Saturdays presidential election, the presidential candidates of the PDP and LP approached the Court seeking inspection of elections materials.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his counterpart of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, also asked the Presidential Election Court (PEC) in Abuja to allow them to inspect election materials used in the February 25 elections.

Their request is contained in two ex-parte applications filed at the Court of Appeal, in Abuja.

Both applications, with the INEC and two others as respondents, have been listed for hearing on Friday.

The PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar filed his own on March 1, while Mr Obi of the Labour Party filed the following day.

Counsel to Atiku Abubakar Mr. Adedamola Faloku prayed the Court to grant the Exparte application brought before it pursuant to Section 146 (1) of the Electoral Act and under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution.

He also informed the Court that a schedule of the documents to interrogate the respondent (INEC) was also contained in the application.

Counsel to the applicant adopted all the averments contained in the affidavit and urged the Court to grant the application.