The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, praying it to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election he won.
Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify 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.