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 used to conduct the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, on Tuesday, March 7, Tinubu 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.
According to him, “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.”
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.