The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is seeking an order from the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to enable him access to inspect the electoral materials used for the February 23 presidential election.
A three-man panel of the presidential election tribunal, sat on Wednesday in Abuja to hear the ex-parte motion filed by Atiku over the ability for him to check each electoral materials used during the lection. This panel was led by Justice Abdul Aboki, while Justices Peter Ige and Emmanuel Agim were also assisting.
The petitioners’ legal team was led by Mr. Livy Ozoukwu (SAN), but Chief Chris Uche (SAN) made a submission on behalf of the team.
As expected in an ex parte hearing, the respondents – President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) were absent and not represented by their lawyers.
Uche said during the Wednesday’s hearing the ex parte motion contained six prayers, one of which is seeking the tribunal’s leave to bring the motion before the pre-hearing session.
He added, “Prayers 2 to 6 are in summary seeking orders of this honorable court to allow the inspection and production of election documents used by the Independent Electoral Commission for the conduct of the presidential election to enable the applicants to institute and maintain an election petition.”
