The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday requested an order of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja to inspect server and card readers used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the February 23 presidential election.
Recall that PDP and Atiku are challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
At resumption of hearing, PDP and Atiku through their lawyers led by Levy Uzoukwu (SAN) asked the tribunal to compel INEC to grant them access to the server and smart card readers used in the conduct of the election.
But counsel to INEC, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN) said, “they are asking us to bring something we don’t have,” as he urged the court to dismiss the application.
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Usman further called the attention of the tribunal to its March 6 judgement that granted the petitioners permission to inspect only election materials outside the server.
In a similar vein, Counsel to President Muhammadu Buhari, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) both asked the court to dismiss the application for failing to disclose the existence of the server.
Atiku was represented by the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Peter Obi while the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, represented President Buhari.
Ripples Nigeria
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