Atiku, PDP File Motion To Inspect Election Materials

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have asked the Presidential election tribunal sitting in Abuja to compel Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to surrender all the materials used for the February 23 presidential election for inspection.

The tribunal will conduct its proceedings at the Court of Appeal Headquarters in Abuja.

Atiku and PDP in the motion ex-parte applied for leave of the tribunal to allow them to inspect the voters register, the smart card reader machines, ballot papers and other vital documents used in the conduct of the presidential election.

They also want the tribunal to compel the electoral body to allow their agents to scan and make photocopies of vital documents used in the conduct of the election, for the purpose of establishing alleged irregularities.

The applicants, through their lawyer, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, told the tribunal that the reliefs sought against INEC was for the purpose of filing and maintaining an election petition they intended to lodge against the outcome of the 2019 presidential election. The motion ex-parte was supported with a 12-paragraphed affidavit deposed to by one Col.

Austin Akobundu (retd), Director of Contact and Mobilisation of Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Council. No date has yet been fixed for hearing of the motion, which has INEC, President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress, APC, as 1st to 3rd respondents. Atiku, who came second behind President Buhari of the APC, had earlier vowed to challenge the outcome of the presidential election in court, alleging that it was fraught with manifest irregularities.