Tobias Sylvester
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approached the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
In a motion on notice filed on March 4, INEC asked the tribunal to modify the orders granted to the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to inspect materials used for last presidential election.
KanyiDaily recalls that Atiku and Obi were granted permission by the court to have access to all the sensitive materials used by the INEC in the conduct of the election held on February 25.
A panel of the appellate court led by Joseph Ikyegh made the orders on Friday after the court heard two separate ex parte applications filed by the two aggrieved candidates and their political parties.
The applicants 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 All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.
INEC, in a motion on notice filed on March 4, asked the court to vary the order which restrained it from tampering with materials used for the election.
The commission said it needs to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the governorship and state houses of assembly election.
In one of the reliefs, Obi and LP had sought an order of the court “restraining the 1st respondent (INEC) from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection is conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued”.
However, the relief was withdrawn and consequently struck out by the court.
Meanwhile, Bola Tinubu has set up a reconciliation committee to meet with Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar, and other presidential candidates and appeal to them so that they can work together.
