The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.
Tinubu, on Tuesday, 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.
While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC,
According to Makinde, “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.”
The appellate court sitting as the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal will on Wednesday rule on Tinubu’s application.
Recall that Tinubu has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election BY INEC, despite his failure to win 25 percent of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory.
Many fear this could provide sufficient grounds for his opponents to challenge his victory.
Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6,984,520 votes, while Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party scored 6,101,533 votes.
A few hours later, the former Lagos State governor was presented with a certificate of return alongside his running mate Kashim Shettima, making them the President-elect and Vice President-elect respectively.
While Tinubu and Atiku won 12 states each, Obi won 11 states and the FCT, while Kwankwaso defeated the three only in Kano State.
Of the three leading presidential candidates, only Obi won the FCT, and some persons argued that it is a very strong constitutional requirement to become the President of Nigeria.