Tribunal Grants Buhari, APC Access To Inspect Electoral Materials

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday granted access to President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, to inspect the materials used for the conduct of the February 23 presidential election.

In their separate ex parte applications for the order of inspection, Buhari and his party had said they needed to be granted access to the materials to enable them to defend themselves in any petition which the runner-up in the poll, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his Peoples Democratic Party, had vowed to file.

Buhari and APC had emerged victorious in the election, which its outcome Atiku and PDP had vowed to challenge at the tribunal.

The Justice Abdu Aboki-led tribunal had earlier on March 6 granted similar order to PDP and Atiku permitting them to inspect the electoral materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the conduct of the election to enable them to file their petition against the outcome of the poll.

Buhari and the APC, through their lawyers, moved their separate ex parte motions before the three-man bench on Thursday.

The tribunal in their rulings made the order permitting them to carry out the inspection of the electoral materials and obtain the certified through copies of the documents from INEC.