On Tuesday, President-elect Bola Tinubu petitioned the Court of Appeal in Abuja, requesting that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, grant him access to sensitive materials used in the presidential election he won.
Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, stated that he would need to inspect, scan, and photocopy some of the electoral materials in order to prepare his defense against petitions seeking to annul his election.
“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 added.
While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its own candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC.
The appellate court, which will sit as the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, deferred ruling on Tinubu’s application till Wednesday.