Court Grants President Elect Access To Inspect Election Materials

The Appeal Court in Abuja has granted the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, access to inspect electoral materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission during February 25, 2022, general elections.

Tinubu who is the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, on Tuesday, urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to order INEC to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.

Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.

While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC.

“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Makinde said.

But delivering judgment on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court, in four rulings on Wednesday granted the reliefs sought by Tinubu and APC in the fourth motion ex-parte, except prayers 5 and 6 in the motion filed by Tinubu.