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Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate
The Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja has refused an application by the Independent National Electoral Commission seeking a varying order against the prayers earlier granted to Peter Obi of the Labour Party to inspect the election materials.
T. Inuwa SAN, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, had urged the court to review its orders, praying specifically to be allowed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices for the purpose of conducting the forthcoming governorship election.
But Obi’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN opposed the INEC’s motion in open court, saying the court should dismiss the electoral umpire’s application, because it will jeopardise the evidence they seek to prove that the February 25 presidential election won by Bola Ahmed Tinubu was rigged.
Ruling on INEC’s motion, the 3-man panel of the court held that the electoral umpire’s application “is without merit and is refused”, maintaining that all the orders allowing Obi inspect election materials stand.
However, the court emphasized that the first orders granted Obi did not say he should access INEC’s database or backend server.
“All that this court granted was that Obi obtains election materials and not to have access to INEC data base,” the court ruled.
The court said it only authorised aggrieved parties to inspect electoral materials such as certified true copies of voter registers and scanned documents of ballot papers among others.
Source: TheWhistler | Read More from Thewhistler.ng
