The Appeal Court had earlier granted a similar request to Atiku and Obi on Friday.
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja has mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, access to inspect sensitive materials used in the just concluded presidential election.
The court gave the order on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh.
Though the panel rejected two prayers made by Tinubu, it granted one to four, which include access to the materials in INEC's possession by the President-elect and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to enable them inspect, scan, and make copies of those materials.
Recall that both Tinubu and his party had in separate ex parte applications filed before the court argued that they would need the materials to prepare their defence against petitions that would seek to challenge 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, Mr. Akintola Makinde had submitted.
Meanwhile, the court held on Wednesday that it was satisfied by the merit in Tinubu's request to have access to the materials to enable him defend his election victory.
This comes after the Appeal Court on Friday, March 3, 2023, granted the request of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, to inspect documents used by INEC for the conduct of the presidential election.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had declared Tinubu winner of the February 25 presidential election after he secured majority of votes cast and as well as the constitutional benchmark of 25% in two thirds of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
But, the two opposition candidates alleged that the commission substantially failed to comply with the Electoral Act 2022 in the conduct of the exercise and that the entire process that produced Tinubu as the President-elect was fraught with violence and massive rigging.
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