The Appeal Court in Abuja has given President-elect Bola Tinubu access to inspect electoral materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission during the general elections on February 25, 2022.
Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday to order INEC to provide him access to sensitive materials used in the presidential election.
Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, stated that he would need to review, scan, and make copies of some of the electoral materials in order to prepare his defense against petitions seeking to annul 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.
“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 said.
But delivering judgment on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court, in four rulings on Wednesday granted the reliefs sought by Tinubu and APC in the fourth motion ex-parte, except prayers 5 and 6 in the motion filed by Tinubu.