The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to grant the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, said it was satisfied there was merit in Tinubu’s request to have access to the electoral materials to enable him to defend his election victory.
It held that both Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress, are entitled to have access to the materials in INEC’s possession to enable them to inspect, scan and make photocopies of them.
Both Tinubu and the APC had in separate exparte applications they brought before the court, said they would need the materials to prepare their defence against petitions that would seek to nullify the outcome of the election.
“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with information contained in INEC’s back-end server”, Tinubu’s lawyer, Akintola Makinde submitted.
The Court of Appeal Abuja had on March 3 granted the request of Obi and Atiku to have access to all the sensitive materials INEC deployed for the conduct of the presidential election held on February 25.
