The Court of Appeal Abuja has granted the request of the candidates of Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, respectively, to have access to all the sensitive materials the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed for the conduct of the presidential election held on February 25.
A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the orders after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.
Cited as respondents in the matter were INEC, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as well as his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Both applications were 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 (6a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution, as amended.
While Obi, in his application, moved by Alex Ejesieme, sought six principal reliefs, Atiku’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
